Time for a new blog...

I'm no longer running my craft business Polka Dot Rabbit, haven't been for some time, and after a long hiatus, I've decided to do some blogging again.

You can read my new blog, Consuming Cate over at http://consumingcate.blogspot.com/.

What will I talk/write about:

• Daily happenings and a few pics
• new recipes, with an emphasis on plant based recipes
• Travelling
• The process of writing a novel
• New workshops and creative projects.

Maybe you'd like to join me? 

Winter Warmer Fundraiser

I wanted to take the opportunity to invite you along to our upcoming Green Renters fundraiser.  We decided to do something a bit different than the typical film screenings and trivia nights and we've paired with fellow Brunswick business Olive Grove to host an in-store evening of magic, shadow puppetry, jazz music, mulled wine, fashion and more with proceeds split between us and Olive Grove. There'll be hourly give aways and lots of entertainment and of course, mulled wine! I'll also be making my very special vegan chocolate crackles!

Every ticket sold includes a complimentary glass of mulled wine and books by Brunswick publishers, Aduki Press. 

Tuesday 14^th August

6pm-9pm

Olive Grove Studios

159 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

 Tickets $8/$10

To book and find out more go to http://greenrenters.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=203

Make your own jams and preserves workshop

 We've a couple of places left in Sunday's jams and preserves workshop in Brunswick, Melbourne.

Ever wanted to make your own jam but not sure how? Do you have a glut of zucchinis or beetroot in the garden and would like to make something with them? This hands on workshop will show you the basics of preserving, including preparation, jar sterilisation, setting points and bottling of chutneys and jams.

You'll be involved in making preserves using seasonal fruit and vegetables, and all participants will receive a couple of jars to take home.

Tastings include onion jam, lemon butter, rhubarb jam and tomato kasundi and a yummy devonshire tea for all. 
Only $25
To book go to: http://greenrenters.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=202

I'm busy this week with:

Organising recipes for Saturday's (booked out!) Jam and Preserves workshop

Looking after Mr Pablo, he's been unwell and had an injection of antibiotics at the vet. Here he is enjoying the sun through the office window!


Making double door snakes for our winter warmer packs at the Green Renters shop


Reading crime fiction like this


and watching this at the cinema


Laughing at this video (I'm sure it will amuse food bloggers everywhere) :


Other less pictorial tasks include writing multiple grants, applying for jobs ( I have a interview on skype next week with a company in Israel), working on a vegan lemon butter recipe and getting looking forward to the the comedy fest.

Brunswick Artists Society, Sydney Road Brunswick

I was starving hungry on Saturday morning after a busy appointment and not a minute to breakfast or even take my pills so after shopping for groceries for Sunday's brunch, I popped into the Brunswick Artists Society for breakfast. Formerly known as Red Butterfly, a cafe which I always considered a bit daggy (in a good way) it's now stripped back to basics with exposed wood and bricks, sanded back tables and large glass food cabinets. Much more aesthetically pleasing. I'm not sure how much of the food is made on site but the cabinets were full with various lasagnes, frittatta, salads, gourmet filled rolls and cakes. Not much for vegans but there were a few vegetarian options.

I took a seat and looked at the breakfast menu. The menu was nicely laid out attached to a wooden block. Nothing outstanding except perhaps the beetroot relish which I love as I like to make my own. I sat waiting for someone to take my order (there were no signs to suggest otherwise) but despite looking hungry, no one came near me. I popped up to the counter and order. Confusing. Surely an attached menu on each table suggests table service? Having a sugar craving, I opted for french toast, the only way I eat eggs and the kind of food I eat perhaps once every few months and a long black with cold milk. Considering only two other tables were occupied, the coffee took ages. The women behind the counter seemed more interested in adjusting their hair and rattling coffee beans. But the coffee was nice, I had two cups.

The french toast was a bit of a shock. Described as hearty french bread dipped in egg milk and fried until golden with a topping of maple syrup yogurt and apricots I was bemused to receive two very thin fried slices of bread, topped with cold runny unsweetened yogurt with perhaps a half teaspoon of maple syrup and three half canned apricots. Far from great, especially as it didn't appease my sugar craving. Considering I live five minutes away, I could have done better myself! Next time I'll stick to Jellystone Park cafe.

-And in regard to the name of the cafe, I heard the owner telling someone they are planning on running an art space out the back in the future. Hope it goes well.

Brunswick Artists Society
669 Sydney Road
Brunswick

Make your own skincare workshop

Make your own full sized skin care products from high-quality, natural ingredients. Not only will you know exactly what’s in them, but you’ll blend ingredients to work beautifully with your own skin type.

You'll learn to make your very own:

• lip balm
• gentle cleansing mask
• cooling hydrating toner/facial scrub
  
• facial cleanser

All ingredients, containers and instructions are included in the workshop price and you will receive full sized products to take home for personal use, a recipe list and instruction for the products you've made.

March 8th 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Location: Ross House Association
First floor meeting room 3, 247 Flinders Lane
Melbourne

Cost: $50/$30 concession
Book here

Like this workshop?

You might like our following workshops:

• Make your own bath products
• DIY Natural Cleaning
• Make your own jams and preserves

Planning a Girls Night In or Hen's Night?

We are able to offer this workshop in the comfort for your own home for you and your guests. Contact us for more information and rates.

What have I been up to?

I've been really busy with the Sustainable Living Festival! Green Renters had a stall on the weekend and launched our gigantic green games.

Last night I made these as a gift for a vegan friend:

We're actually making these with some other goodies at Thursday night's workshop which will be fun, even if it means I've made them twice in a week. I'm also trialing a homemade toothpaste and deodorant to offer at workshops, depending on how they work out. Will get some guys to road test them also.

I'd like to offer the bath and skin care product workshops to 'hen's nights'* and the like, but I'm not quite sure how to promote them. I've contacted several 'green' bridal websites but they only focus on the big day not the preceding events.

Also busy hunting for part time work as Chris has been working full time the last six months and it's his turn to focus on Green Renters a bit more whilst I work (hopefully) to pay off some debts. Applying for jobs is always a bit soul destroying but fingers crossed. I'm also in the process of closing down my Polka Dot Rabbit shop to move the items over to Green Renters as appropriate, as they are all 'upcycled' products. It is too much work trying to promote two shops and the craft scene bubble has definitely burst.



I think this video is great, obviously the name of my blog and business makes it evident I love rabbits and find it quite abhorrent that they are seen merely as food by many rather than the engaging intelligent animals that they are.

*I really loathe the term 'hen's nights' I also dislike 'girls' as in 'girls' night in'. I wish more contemporarty terms were recognised!

Playing catch up on blogging....

I'm a rather behind blogger. I've been busy making things in time for Melbourne's Sustainable Living Festival where Green Renters is having a stall as part of the big weekend and running our life-sized board games (assuming they are finished in time) Rentopology and Sneaks and Ladders. We also have a stencil artist 'in residence' in our stall so people can bring along their calico bags, t shirts or other items and get them stenciled with a new design!


Chris dug up some fresh veggies this afternoon all set for making potato and beetroot mash. I love beetroot! Roast, boiled or eaten raw. Mashed with potato and Nuttlex and served with hot mustard, homemade capsicum and soy sausages, it's a definite treat.

We have loads of herbs in the garden at the moment: rosemary, parsley, basil, vietnamese mint, culinary mint, oregano and thyme. I put bags full out the front with a 'help yourself' sign at regular intervals.


We're also enjoying a bumper crop of strawberries on our breakfast cereal this season. Nothing like homemade produce! We've three Green Renters workshops coming up on making jams and preserves, one of which is booked out already. I'm looking forward to them to demonstrate that preserving is possible even in small spaces without a Fowler kit.


I've also a couple more skincare and bath products workshops coming up. They'll be held at Ross House, in Flinder Lane, Melbourne city and cost $50 full/$30 concession. I've done several practice rounds of each workshop now and tweaked a couple of recipes, bought extra equipment and I feel I've got them nicely polished. All materials and recipes included in each workshop and the ingredients are all vegan.

Here's a cute pic of Chris with Mr Pablo, our 15 year old cat. We adopted him last year and he's surprisingly spritely for an older gentleman!

Things I like today

I think this chair is rather lovely, such beautiful fabric!



Rather enjoyed this article on seasonal eating out of season? (I spied chocolate eggs in the shops on Boxing Day). What's your view? ps-keen to make my own hot cross buns again this Easter!




I'm keen to give these vegan potato tacos a try...with plenty of chilli sauce! Avocados are cheap at the moment, and it's also great to find new soy free recipes.


Wonderful embroidery!

Hope everyone in Melbourne is enjoying the cooler weather today!

Upcoming workshops: Make your own natural bath and skincare products

I've a few place left in the workshops if you're at a loose end this Sunday or looking for something to do on the 22nd:

Bathing products:
Date: Sunday January 8th
Time: 2pm-4pm
Location: Brunswick

We'll be making:

• bath bombs
• summertime body scrub
• cocoa bathtime melt
• moisturising facial mask

Skincare products:
Date: Sunday Jan 22nd
Time: 2pm-4pm
Location: Brunswick

We'll be making:

• lip balm
• gentle cleansing mask
• cooling hydrating mist
• facial cleanser

Cost of each workshop: $30
Bookings essential
http://www.greenrenters.org/workshops

In each workshop you'll learn about natural ingredients and get an opportunity to make several products using a range of materials including cocoa butter, essential oils and kaolin clay. All ingredients, containers and instructions are included in the workshop price and you will receive full sized products to take home for personal use. Class will include a cooling homemade cordial or glass of wine, homemade biscuits and a recipe list of products to take home.

Love to see you there!

Are you interested in making your own natural beauty products?

Ever wanted to make your own beauty products? Want to use only natural (vegan) ingredients?

I'm going to offer two DIY natural beauty product workshops in late January at my home in Brunswick, Melbourne.

These will be in part 'practice' workshops before I offer them to Neighbourhood Houses and the like as part of our repertoire at Green Renters so I will only be charging $30 per person to cover costs with each class size kept small. It might be a little nervous and tad less polished than other classes, but it's a great opportunity for me to try out teaching the products and share knowledge and for you to get an opportunity to make your very own beauty products for a reduced price!

The two classes:
Make your own bathing products:


January 8th
2pm-4pm
Brunswick (address will be emailed to you upon payment)

Make your own bathing products – free from artificial ingredients and preservatives! You’ll blend pure essential oils and work with coconut butter, shea butter, sweet almond oil, rose buds, lavender flowers and other high-quality ingredients.

You'll learn to make your very own:

• bath bombs
• summertime body scrub
• cocoa bathtime melt
• moisturising facial mask

All ingredients, containers and instructions are included in the workshop price and you will recieve full sized products to take home for personal use. Class will include a cooling homemade cordial or glass of wine, homemade biscuits and a recipe list of products to take home.

Book here

Make your own skin care products:

Sunday January 22nd
2pm-4pm
Brunswick (address will be emailed to you upon payment)

Make your own full sized skin care products from high-quality, natural ingredients. Not only will you know exactly what’s in them, but you’ll blend ingredients to work beautifully with your own skin type.

You'll learn to make your very own:

• lip balm
• gentle cleansing mask
• cooling hydrating mist
• facial cleanser

All ingredients, containers and instructions are included in the workshop price and you will recieve full sized products to take home for personal use. Class will include a cooling homemade cordial or glass of wine, homemade biscuits and a recipe list of products to take home.

Book here

Photo details: La Bain (The Bath) (1913)From "Modes et Manieres d'Aujourd'bui"By Charles Martin

Holidays: Beijing-part one

Beijing is a fascinating place. It's more urban than we found Shanghai, yet is still a combination of modern technology and rural basics. Add millions of people, building sites everywhere and massive parks with grass you aren't allowed to sit on and you'll see it's a place full of interesting contradictions.

Our flight to Beijing was literally sickening in that it was woefully hot on the plane and constantly turbulent. Quite challenging and I was extremely glad to depart the plane!
We stayed in the suburbs which gives a great insight into local life outside of the tourist precincts. The area included massive apartment buildings of over 2000 apartments per building and a communal park area.


Our host grew her own vegetables in pots in the window, a great idea!

Modern phones in Beijing


Eating out in Beijing was certainly a challenge. Our greatest successes with veggie food were when we had our hosts with us, otherwise we'd point at a vegetarian dish on a menu and they'd come back with beef noodle soup! I found very few people speak English (fair enough too) which made daily transactions quite exhausting. Pointing, smiling and please and thankyou only get you so far. The dish above was a cold tofu and vegetable dish which was delicious. In general, most vegetable dishes were cold salads or sides rather than a meal in their own right, assuming you could decipher the pictures and chinese characters on menus.

In general, the Chinese food (which differs from region to region) bore little resemblance to what we eat in Australia bar the rice. Meals were often bland or heavily oily which sides of chilli oil and vinegar, no soy sauce in sight. Tofu was typically used only a thickener and served with something else, goose pate anyone? Alcohol at most places was limited to Chinese beer so I had to stock up on Chinese spirits which tasted similar Jaegermeister. The chronic heat meant I was dying for a gin and tonic to no avail hehe.

We did visit a middle eastern restaurant which had a bizarre fusion of Chinese and Middle eastern food. Delicious bread! There were also plenty of roadside bbq carts with omelettes, sausages and the like in the morning, (ahh the joys of not eating eggs either)!

As always, I struggled with the guilt and shame of not speaking the language. I feel embarrassed that I do not learn languages easily.

I found Beijing less frenetic than Shanghai, roads had traffic lights and pedestrian crossings and there was generally signage. Public toilets were amusing, taps and soap (where available) would be operated by a sensor motion yet all the toilets were squat toilets. Somewhat precarious after drinking lots of rice wine and spirits! It was odd, I saw very few western women walking around alone and it was a challenge being stared at and talked about constantly, we even had people taking our photos at some of the tourists site as they are visited by all kinds of people, some of which may never have seen an anglo person in the flesh.

I'll write about some sights and such in my next post...

Things I like today

Love the wall hanging and the hankies!

This is another room from their house that I love

How good does this recipe of Mushrooms Bourguinon look? Yummy! If you're in a cooking mood, I recently also made pear crumble and bean loaf!

The work of photographer Julia Hoersch as featured here

How I adore the work of Misako Mimoko!

Cute Jan Goeting pic from here

Things I like today

How cool is this keyboard waffle iron?!

Can I live here please?

Cute new badge sets from Polka Dot Rabbit shop. They are definitely limited as both fabrics are long out of print! You can pick up a set over here

Loving these photos of gorgeous rescue pigs from Animal Liberation's facebook site.

Coco and Chloe are the two piglets that ALV and Uproar rescued on December 4.
Chloe is improving every day, but sadly Coco is still unable to use her back
legs, so her prognosis is very guarded. When you see the scores of Christmas HAM
ads hitting you now before Christmas, think of them and their mothers who are
still locked in a metal prison.

Well said.

Pancakes!

Pancakes are one of those foods that I quite like and really should have more often as they don't take anywhere near as long to make as anticipated. But they do result in a lot of washing up with the mixing bowl, spoons, fry pan, flour sifter, measuring cups...but they are worth it!

I bought a copy of Isa Chandra's Vegan Brunch a few weeks ago at World Vegan Day. I used her recipe with some adaptations for ease:

Recipe:
1 1/4 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons oil (i used olive)
1/2 cup water
1 cup soy milk
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (as I'm on a budget I used golden syrup)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ( vanilla essence for reasons above)

Instructions

1. Preheat pan
2. Sift dry ingredients.
3. Make a well in the centre and add the water, oil, maplesyrup and vanilla.
4. Mix until combined, a little lumpy is ok. I added extra water to make them a bit thinner.
5. Spray pan with some spray oil.
6. Pour pancake batter in and cook pancakes until bubbles form.
7. Flip and cook other side for another minute.

I served mine with nuttlex, golden syrup, kiwi fruit and strawberries :)

Cate's compelling chili

We had a friend over for dinner last night so I decided to make a big pot of chili. I love making chili, it's a great meal to cook in bulk and freeze for future meals. I tend to use a variety of ingredients depending on what's on hand rather than following a strict recipe, so I decided to loosely make my own recipe for you all.

Ingredients

1 head garlic (or to taste), diced ( I like lots of garlic for my hayfever)

1 onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 red capsicum, diced

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 handful spinach
1/2 cup broad beans (out of the pod)
6 dried chillies, sliced
2 tablespoon cumin
1 veg stock cube
1 tspn oregano
1 tblespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can 4 bean mix, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup red lentils
water
1 can beer
tomatoes, diced

Instructions

1. Fry onion, carrot, garlic and celery for a couple of minutes or until soft.
2. Add mushrooms and broad beans and cook another minute.
3. Add cocoa, stock cube, spices and chilli. Stir gently so it doesn't stick and add water once you can smell the spices.
4. Add the beans.
5. Add tomatoes, 2 cups water and 1 cup beer. Turn heat down and simmer with the lid on.
6. Cook about 30 minutes, more is fine to combine the flavours.

Variations: other veggies that work well include corn, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower. You could also use black beans but I find these hard to find in Australia. They are occasionally available uncooked in the organic section of the supermarket in a packet or for $6 a small tin for the Amy's Organic brand. Chickpeas would also be good.

Serve with rice, tortillas, corn chips. guacamole, salsa etc

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

I wrote an article for Mix Tape on catering for vegans at dinner parties after going to a dinner party with a colleague of my husband a few months ago where the hosts were so uncomfortable and awkward that we wanted to leave. Yes we had offered to bring our own food, but they'd insisted on cooking. The food was absolutely lovely but it's hard to relax with people watching every bite anxiously. I'm not sure if they are like that with all their guests or it was just us....

Anyway, Mix Tape is a lovely crafty arty zine put together by the amazing Justine, and this is sadly their final paper issue...