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Two weeks ago I spent a fun filled week with one of my nieces and one of my nephews. We went on daily outings and only on one of those days did we eat out (we went to Sweetbones Café in Canberra), all the other days we packed up our picnic lunch. On one of those days there was a fire in Queanbeyan and when we got there found out that the swimming pool was closed, so we decided to go home for our picnic before going off to bowling.

I am curious to know who of you reading this blog post would like to pursue being a chef as either a hobby or profession. My story was that at the age of sixteen I wanted to be a chef but as I was vegetarian no one would take me on as an apprentice. I let go of that dream and pursued my other dreams, working with people with disabilities and being a primary school teacher. It was only at the age of thirty eight that I decided to follow my original passion and teach myself how to be a top notch vegetarian and then vegan chef. It has been an incredible twelve years.

How is everyone? I am on my way to Canberra to visit my brother, niece and nephew and am curious to know how it will be to see all the fire damage as I travel down south. My heart is with all of you who may be affected by these fires here in Australia. It is also with all of you who may be struggling right now. I hope my newsletter and recipe brings a bit of light relief if that is possible.

Hello Everyone, hope you are all safe and well and those of you affected by bushfires, my prayers, thoughts and love are with you. This is my first blog post of 2020. It was lovely to have a few weeks break from sending out newsletters and I am so excited to be writing again. Someone asked me if I like doing my blog posts and my reply was “I love it, I love sharing recipes and I love writing. What I struggle with is getting photos that are good enough to attach to the blog posts. Photography is not one of my strong points. Anyway it is not stopping me. I have great plans for regular blog posts in 2020 with fantastic recipes. So keep those requests coming in.

Its recipes for children week. This week’s recipe is vegan trifle just in time for Christmas. I am not sure if all children like trifle but guess what, I loved it. It was one of my favourite parts of Christmas growing up.

This week is book review week in my scheduled blogs and I have decided to review my own Cook Book Veet’s Cuisine Delicious Vegan Recipes. Yes I love my own cookbook, cooking many of the recipes on the retreats that I catered on over the last ten years. The recipes are simple, all gluten free, all vegan and all delicious. There are over 150 recipes including how to make cashew cheese and sour cream. Also Indian feast recipes, four types of lasagnes, a Balinese feast, many other main dishes, soups, salads, dressings, desserts, drinks, vegetable dishes and a dedicated grain section. As well as a pantry list and a protein guide.

How are you all this week? How many of you are effected by the bushfires? I really hope you are all safe. It’s been very full on for many people living in the area I reside. I live in town so am lucky to be in a safe area but many friends are evacuated at the moment and others are staying home in readiness to protect their properties.

If you haven’t already been, I highly recommend going to Canberra and visiting one of my all time favourite cafes ever; Sweet Bones Bakery and Café . It’s in the city suburb of Braddon and sells the most delicious everything. The café is hip yet down to earth and I feel so at home when I go to eat there. Emily and Russell Brindly are the owners of Sweet Bones and along with bringing up two small boys; Banjo and Bo, they do an epic job of serving up not only great food, drinks and cakes but also making celebration and wedding cakes. All vegan of course.

This is week four of my new schedule where I post a recipe request or a recipe someone in the vegan cooking courses has developed. A couple of Vegan Foundation Cooking Courses ago the lovely Jayne and Wendy made a delicious sweet potato gnocchi and I promised them I would develop a good gluten free gnocchi recipe to share with them when I got a spare moment.

It’s week three of my blog schedule and I am enjoying having a theme to go with each week. This week is seasonal produce. I’m excited as this is a seasonal vegetable that is native to both Australia and New Zealand. It can also be found in South American countries. It’s a hardy plant that likes sandy and marshy conditions to grow. It grows wild in many people’s gardens without them even knowing.