Month: September 2022

Recipe Sunday – Super Easy Vegan Biscoff Tiramisu

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 3 Comments

Hello, hello, beautiful cats! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend! A few days ago was my birthday and nothing scream “birthday” to me as tiramisu. It has been the dessert that my aunt used to make for all my birthdays and although my mom would make a delicious cake for my birthday parties, my auntie’s tiramisu has always been a favourite.

This year, I decided to make it myself but with a twist and this Super Easy Vegan Biscoff Tiramisu by TheVietVegan was perfect for the purpose.

Super Easy Vegan Biscoff Tiramisu by TheVietVegan

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

Method

  1. In a heat-safe bowl, combine instant coffee granules, sugar, and boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Let come to room temperature. Take out the Cocowhip from the freezer and let sit out at room temperature to soften while the coffee mixture cools down.
  2. Fully dip your Biscoff cookies, one cookie at a time, into the sweetened coffee mixture and layer in a flat and shallow container (I used a 3.2 cup Rubbermaid [affiliate link] container). Work quickly as the cookies start to disintegrate fairly quickly once soaked.
  3. Then add a layer of Cocowhip on top of the soaked cookies, about 1/3 cup per layer.
  4. You’ll be adding 3 layers of soaked Biscoff cookies, and 3 layers of cocowhip. I did 6 cookies per layer, with a thin layer of Cocowhip between each layer.
  5. I like to add an extra thick layer of Cocowhip on top, then dust with a coating of cocoa powder to finish. I dust using a fine mesh sieve to create a light, even layer of cocoa powder.
  6. Cover and let it set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

I hope you’ll make it and enjoy it!

Love,

TVCL xx

Book of the Month – Cat Out of Hell

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Hi beauties! I hope everything is well with you! For the second instalment of Book of the Month I wanted to share with you this book, which is a very easy read by author Lynne Truss (not to be confused with the new UK Prime Minister, and ex Shell employee, Liz Truss) – Cat out of Hell.

This is not the first book I’ve read by Lynne Truss: I started with Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (a book for grammar-Nazi, and I mean it with all the love as I feel very close to them) and I also read the sequel of Cat out of Hell, which is The Lunar Cats.

What’s in the book?

Clearly, I was drawn up to this book because of the title: it has “cat” in it and that was already a great selling point! And having read Eats, Shoots and Leaves I knew the writing would have not disappointed me.

It is also a short book, and the version that was readily available from the library was in large print, which made it even an easier read (not ashamed of taking a large print book and I encourage you to try them!).

The main characters are a librarian and two “evil cats”: the story follows some deaths connected to sightings of such felines and the librarian is going to solve these mysteries. Love me a story involving a smart detective librarian!

Truss has a very specific sense of humour that you can see in most of her books: it’s dry and very British, so it might not be for everybody. But it’s surely my favourite!

As for the genre, it’s a delicious mix of fantasy and mystery. If you like the idea of a fantasy/mystery book with the main character a detective librarian, there is also the series The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (and will definitely feature AT LEAST one book of the series here).

Some Quotes

“Since Mary died, I have looked at people bothering about ridiculous things and I simply cannot bear it! How can they be ignorant of the fact that – in a second – we are gone? Any sort of cruelty or stupidity dismays me.” (p.75)

“The smell – well. WE’d noticed the smell, of course, but we didn’t realise it was coming from here. Some of the readers – well, you know what they’re like.” (p.82)

“I was so startled that I giggled. This man can’t have satanic eyeballs, I thought. He’s a librarian.” (p.170)

Conclusion

This is a very easy read and very funny and the writing is impeccable. The plot is perfect, especially for those who love libraries, librarians and cats. A great read for any time of the year, from a cosy Sunday afternoon with a blanket and cup of tea, or for the beach.

Whether you’ve read it or plan to, let me know your thoughts.

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Potatoes Arrabbiata

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Happy Sunday, beautiful kittens! We’re getting into Autumn, time to start taking the cosy clothes out of the closet and preparing for some time on with a hot beverage. And while I know that these Potatoes Arrabbiata by the Jewish Vegetarian Society are meant more for Spring (for Pesach, Passover which is in April), I feel that they are very good for Autumn too (as well as Winter!).

Potatoes Arrabbiata by the Jewish Vegetarian Society

I saw this recipe not that long ago and made it just a few days ago: look how inviting it is! And obviously, so easy to make it’s beginner’s proof. So, without further ado, the recipe.

Ingredients

  • Handful of baby potatoes (skin on)
  • 1 garlic clove, sliced
  • Pinch of dried chili flakes
  • 200g passata
  • Handful of spinach
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Method

Cook the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water for about 10 minutes, until cooked through. Drain.

Pan-fry the sliced garlic in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for a few minutes until it starts to brown, then add the chili flakes, passata and cooked potatoes.

Season generously with salt and pepper and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the spinach and simmer for a further minute until wilted, then squash each potato with the back of a fork, remove from the heat and serve.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you knew this recipe already or if you made it.

Love,

TVCL xx

Recipe Sunday – Delicious Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff

/ thevegancatlibrarian / 1 Comment

Hello kittens, how are you today? Here all good, just enjoying the weekend and sharing another scrumptious recipe with you: the Delicious Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff by VeganPunks. I was kind of craving mushrooms, but wanted to make something different from a mushroom risotto or a veggie stir-fry, I looked into the recipes that I bookmarked and this stroganoff was among the ones that I could make with the ingredients that I had.

The last time I had a mushroom stroganoff was at a pub and I shared it with a friend. Oooft, it wasn’t that good: the sauce was almost acrid, the accompanying rice seemed microwaved and overall it wasn’t an enjoyable experience. So, when I’ve seen this recipe in my bookmarks I decided that it would be good to try.

Delicious Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff by VeganPun

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp vegan butter
  • 2 onions – finely chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic – finely chopped
  • 400 g portobello mushrooms – sliced
  • 400 g chestnut mushrooms – sliced
  • 250 ml vegetable stock
  • 2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
  • 2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 200 g vegan créme fraîche we use Oatly
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley – chopped
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and fry the onion until soft
  • Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute then chuck the mushrooms in and cook until they release a little water and have reduced in size – roughly 5 minutes.
  • Sprinkle the paprika over the ingredients and stir well and pour the stock into the saucepan, bringing to a boil, then quickly reduce to a simmer.
  • Next spoon in the crème fraîche and stir well, whilst watching it melt into the sauce.
  • Pop in the Worcestershire sauce.
  • When the sauce is still simmering, add the cornflour mix.
  • Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sauce cooks down a bit and you’re left with a rich, creamy sauce, the consistency of thin cream.
  • Season with salt and pepper (to taste), top with fresh chopped parsley and serve with rice or mashed potato.

I had it with arborio rice, but I believe basmati or jasmine rice would be delicious too.

I hope you’ll make it and enjoy it!

Love,

TVCL xx

Dedicated To September

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Hello cuties, how is everything with you? Here we can feel the transition from summer to autumn and I love it! Especially today, it was sunny and the air was cold and crisp: perfect! And this brings me to this post which I am dedicating to September.

September is a special month for me. It actually has always been a special time of the year and I was thinking about this one day while meditating after a short yoga session.

When I was a child, while September had the nostalgic taste of the end of summer (where I would be spending a lot of time with my parents) with returning to school (with all the relative issues of having to deal with bullies, etc.), it also had the excitement of there being 4 birthdays in this month: my dad’s, mine, my mom’s and my grandad’s. Plus it was the month of my parents’ wedding anniversary. I mean, basically a whole month of celebrations, what’s not to like? We would celebrate each individual birthday, spending it together. The, from when I was 8 years old for the next 10 years, my mom, dad and me, we used to go for a short city break to a European country. It all started when I was turning 8, going to the main train station nearby and picking the next train going abroad: my parents would book a last minute ticket for the three of us and we would spend the next 3 to 5 days away and we would eat one traditional dessert of the place we visited. The first city was Paris.

September is also the month I left home to move to a different country. At the end of the summer 2015 I decided that I needed to change my life and on the 3rd of September I left home with just a backpack. It has been one of the best decisions I ever made: I had many different experiences, learned a lot and grew up (especially mentally and spiritually). I am a place that I love, doing a job that makes me feel great about myself and proud of what I do. I feel a much closer connection to the community I live in. I believe I am experiencing happiness as well as a calm that I rarely experienced before. Obviously, I think sometimes of what my life would be now if I never left home and I would see more of my parents, which is something I miss. But with every decision you’ll always have pros and cons, so I take it this way.

The other great event that happened in September, was I got my current job. I studied to get the degree that would have enabled me to get a job in libraries and worked my way up, from library assistant to librarian. Thanks to other decisions that I had to make and then led to this job, which I truly love and am passionate about.

And another positive thing, I finally moved to a lovely flat, clean, with a garden and allowed pets (and three months later I adopted my cat!).

So, here it is why September is the most special month for me.

I hope that you have good times in September!

Love,

TVCL xx