Here we are again…I hope you all have had a productive week and are still safe and well…Time to tell you what has made me laugh, cry or cringe this week…time to tell you what I have been cooking…of course…

Everyone loves a wedding don’t they and this wedding was absolutely delightful what the groom did to make his brides day really special was awesome…

What a kind, considerate man…with his heart in the right place…

Since the lockdowns, I have spent even more time in the kitchen ..much of it making cakes now that I have mastered the temperature on my oven never easy but if I double tin and heat it for a while with the tin in the oven the temperature settles and stays stable providing I do not keep the oven door open too long…Thai ovens don’t have a thermostat just low/middle and high plus only room for one shelf…All mod cons here…

I have also been experimenting with different flours and different ways of making cakes an example was the Chocolate cake I made using vinegar instead of eggs…This week I am going to be experimenting with a recipe my daughter recommended which uses 2 oranges which you cook for 2 hours and then blitz skin and all… mix with the other ingredients and you have a lovely gluten free orange cake…she has also made it using lemons…

While searching for different cake recipes I chanced upon this…Raindrop Cake…made of water and agar that resembles a raindrop. It first became popular in Japan in 2014, and later gained international attention.

Photo credit: Ty Nigh on VisualHunt.com / CC BY

Not something I will be attempting but isn’t it beautiful? Although maybe if it came in kit form I would make it just because…Have you made or eaten this???

The dish is made from mineral water and agar; thus, it has virtually no calories…

The dessert is also sold in kits to be made at home. It has been showcased by the mainstream media on The Today Show, BuzzFeed and ABC News…

Next we have my wellness corner which features Sally’s new series Project 101…

Wellness Corner:

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/project-101-resilience-acidity-alkalinity-ph-balance-for-health-part-two-and-music-therapy-sally-cronin/

Now I know many of my readers are vegetarian or vegan…although I could happily eat vegetables for at least 5 days a week I believe in a balanced diet and not excluding food groups nless medically advised and I love fish and meat although I eat very little portions of meat all of our food is from sutainable sources…

Our rice has benefited from the recent rains…It is low season now but it is looking good thanks to Tik who tends the rice well…

Today as I love cheese although I don’t get to eat it often often as cheddar is not readily available here however I also don’t know enough about alternatives for cheese…The lovely Tori who is vegan has written a great explanation for me and I am sharing it in case it helps any of you if you are looking for alternatives to cheese…Over to Tori...Tori has some lovely fur babies and has also written some delightful childrens books…

Vegan Cheese:

It depends on the brand and type you get. Some are so far away in taste and texture from dairy cheese that they wouldn’t fool anyone in to thinking they’re eating cheese, some taste like cheese but have an unpleasant aftertaste, and others are so close you’d need to be really good at identifying different cheeses to tell they’re vegan alternatives.

I get one called “VioLife” that’s got several different varieties. I get the original block, and sometimes also the feta style and the cream cheese, but they do others too. Their original block is pretty close in texture to cheddar, and tastes kind of like a very mild cheddar (you can get a stronger one, but I prefer mild, so stick to the original) though it takes a little longer to properly melt than cheddar, and even longer to brown slightly when grilled or placed in the oven so it’s difficult to get that crispy brown coating to sheperd’s pie you can get by pudding grated cheese on top, if you know what I mean. Their feta style one is incredibly close in both taste and texture to dairy feta (though melts exceptionally quickly, so if you’re melting it you want to do it for a very short amount of time, unless you want it to become extremely runny) and the cream cheese they do sort of reminds me of the Laughing Cow cheese spread. If you know your cheeses well, you’ll notice a difference in the taste and texture, plus there are differences when you’re melting them, like I said. But they’re close enough that they hit the spot with cheese cravings, so I haven’t missed the dairy cheese at all since becoming vegan.

Thank you, Tori that was really helpful…xxx

While I was checking out some recipes today I came across a recipe which grated walnuts over the top of the dish instead of cheese…

Has anyone tried grating walnuts instead of cheese?

0ppps nearly forgot…Chocolate Fudge recipe…In now have vanilla fudge/tablet/coconut Ice and Chocolate fudge in my repertoire…for someone who prefers savoury this lockdown has opened a few more recipe doors…

Ingredients:

• 300 gm sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• can condensed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 oz butter
• 1/2-1 cup walnuts chopped( optional)

Let’s Cook!

Add the sugar, salt and cocoa powder to a heavy bottomed pan and stir in the can of condensed milk…Over a medium heat bring to a roling boil and stir for 5 mins until the sugar has dissolved.

Remove the pan from the heat and take a brush and water and clean the inside of the pan of any mixture it stop it crystalising. then add the vanillea extract and the butter and beat the mixture foir 5  minutes until it starts to thicken then stir in the chopped walnuts and gentle comine then pour into a prepared dish to set. Once set cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Foraging is done by almost all Thais here it seems to be a national pastime…There are allsorts of mushrooms to be found here…We haven’t come across any of these though and I am sure if I did I would run…

A fungus named Xylaria polymorpha, commonly known as dead man’s finger,

Although I have researched this mushroom and some people eat these mushrooms I for one would not…

That’s all for Saturday Snippets this week…Stay safe and be well…Wash your hands and please wear a mask when out in public and practise social distancing.

About Carol Taylor: 

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a fabulous week and stay safe these are troubling times xx