Is anyone else a little relieved? They’ve been dancing around this storyline for ages. However, there was an interesting twist was when Kylie went on a killing spree after the revelation that Dylan had killed three people, including Kylie’s sister.
Can we take a moment to admire Kerry-Lee’s acting? She’s had some amazing facial expressions in the past few episodes.
I love that she dumped the ashes in the toilet. I don’t blame her, especially after everyone kept pressuring her about having a funeral for Dylan. Why not let Dylan’s brother handle it? And then everyone kept going on about it. “He was your HUSBAND!” That would be enough to make me lose the plot for sure.
Speaking of “acting”, Claire kept making this face during the season finale:
In other news, Mo died, so we’ve lost yet another core character this year. What gives?
A few weeks ago I decided to make vegan lasagna with homemade vegan cheese. It was super delicious, and may be one of my favourite recipes ever.
I used this recipe for the vegan cheese but doubled it.
You’ll need:
Lasagna noodles Pasta sauce Vegan mozzarella
For the pasta sauce:
1 jar marinara sauce 800g diced tomatoes 340g tomato paste 680g Trader Joe’s beefless ground (or Yves or whatever) 300g mushrooms, chopped 1 large onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, diced
Pour some olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add in the garlic and onion and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the beefless ground and saute for a minute, then add the tomato paste and stir together. Then add in the diced tomatoes, marinara sauce and chopped mushrooms. Continue to heat until it boils, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Ideally you would make this a day ahead, as this will allow the flavours to meld together, but this is not necessary.
Now it is time to layer everything. I used a 23cm x 33 cm pan (9 x 13 inches)
Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.
Add a layer of pasta sauce. Then a layer of the pasta. Then another layer of pasta sauce. Then thinly slice the vegan cheese and add a layer of that, then add another layer of pasta. Continue until you have used all the pasta sauce and vegan cheese. The top layer should be the sauce with a bit of the cheese on top.
Then cover with aluminium foil and place in oven for 25 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes.
Does anyone remember Clare? She was around for about five seconds six months ago and appeared to have a crush on Jack. Then she was raped by the Beachwood Beast and promptly disappeared afterwards.
Anyway, she arrived in town and immediately offered to be a surrogate for Jack and Lincoln.
Jack was thrilled with the idea for some reason, and said yes without even thinking about it.
What is wrong with Jack? “Well, I’ve been sober for a month after a serious p-addiction, I have essentially zero income, I haven’t finished school yet, and Lincoln and I have been together for only a couple of weeks, so this should be great!”
Jack and Clare ambushed Lincoln with the idea, and he was a bit ambivalent about it. Who would blame him?
He eventually came around to it after being pressured into it.
I assume that what we are meant to gather from this is that these people have all completely lost the plot?
Jack at least sort of has an excuse- those drugs probably really munted his brain. But the rest of them don’t have any excuse.
I’m also a bit worried about Clare. She was raped only a few months ago and is also only like 19 years old. And does she even know about Jack’s drug addiction?
In yesterday’s episode we had the very contrived twist of Clare overhearing Lincoln on the phone saying that she was “damaged” and that the surrogacy was probably a bad idea. Yeah, great idea to have that conversation in the staff room where anyone could just walk in at any time.
Does this remind anyone of Morgan’s disastrous surrogacy storyline back in 2009? You know, when Morgan decided that she just had to carry a baby for her friends?
Well, it turned out that the parents-to-be were actually total lunatics who were constantly at each others’ throats. They kept harassing Morgan, often screaming at her, and threatening to file lawsuits against her. Yeah (!), I’m sure a baby would fare very well in that kind of environment (!).
What a horrendous storyline. I think it may have been worse for me than it was for the characters. By the end I wanted to throttle the lot of them.
So how long do you think it will be until this new surrogacy situation goes pear shaped?
I know it’s taken me ages to write about this, but I just had to talk about this.
This week, Curtis abruptly left the show to pursue detective work in Christchurch. Yes, that’s right. After two years of will-they-won’t-they between Curtis and Esther, our “payoff” was Curtis telling Esther to “go to hell” before disappearing forever. What??
I think what we were meant to gather from this was that she didn’t want to keep him from missing this career opportunity, and this was the only way to get him to do this detective course.
But now what? Esther languishes on the sidelines for a few months? Curtis is totally forgotten just like that? I’m guessing Jayden Daniels decided to quit the role, but they still could have figured out a much better way to handle it.
Granted, the most recent character exit storylines have been pretty abysmal: Finn abruptly leaving for Sudan after a month of buildup for a romance between him and Zoe, only for Zoe to sit on the sidelines for a couple of months before completely vanishing without a trace (where on earth is Zoe by the way?). Then we had Vinnie decide that he just has to move to Singapore for a “better life”. Who cares about what the woman he married wants, or that she’s still recovering from PTSD after a car smashed into her, right? Oh well, I guess we just “want different things.” Vinnie became unrecognisable towards the end, but this behaviour was even more out of character.
Then we had Frank abruptly decide that he actually does want to go back to being a serial criminal, and hire a hitman to kill Dylan before skipping town. No one really seemed to care much that he was gone, so that was interesting. Kylie was like “oh well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it” before immediately jumping into bed with Dylan. I hope they have plans to bring in more new characters, because the cast is rapidly hollowing out right now. We gained Lincoln in August but we’ve lost Vinnie, Frank, Finn and now Curtis.
1 1/4 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours or boiled for about 15-20 mins, until softer
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup neutral tasting coconut oil, melted
1.5 tsp lactic acid
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Chives
Let tofu sit out for about 15 minutes until it is closer to room temperature. This is because if the melted coconut oil touches the rest of the mixture, it will become solid again and it will be more difficult to blend these ingredients. Combine all ingredients in a high power blender until completely smooth. If the mixture is too thick for the blender to blend, move to a bowl and microwave for about 15-30 seconds so that the coconut oil melts again.
Once blended, the consistency should be like this.
Transfer to a container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. It will thicken a lot and the tanginess will decrease a bit.
Once the bagels have cooled, slice in half and slather with vegan cream cheese and whatever toppings you prefer. I like to add vegan chick’n strips (Beyond Meat/Lightlife), sliced tomatoes, cucumber and avocado. Or you can make carrot lox and add that.
Bagel with vegan cream cheese, carrot lox, tomatoes and capers
The other week I decided to try making dumplings with soy curls. Soy curls seem to work well in everything – curries, shawarma, stir fries… They absorb flavours very well and don’t have any odd aftertaste that I can detect.
You will need dumpling wrappers for this. Most of them are vegan. I found some at my local H-Mart in the frozen section:
Vegan dumplings:
Dumpling wrappers 1/2 package Butler’s soy curls 1 tsp Butler’s veggie “chicken” seasoning 250g diced mushrooms, any kind should work 1/2 large onion, diced 2 cloves garlic 1 tsp diced ginger 2-4 tbsp mushroom “oyster” sauce, to taste 1 tbsp agave syrup or sugar Hot chili oil, for serving Bamboo steamer
Place soy curls in a bowl. Pour boiling water over them to cover, and add veggie “chicken” seasoning (Butler’s sells this as well). Let sit for about 5 minutes, until rehydrated.
Heat a pan over medium-high heat with some vegetable oil, and add garlic, ginger and onion. Saute for a couple of minutes until the onions are softened/browned a bit. Then lower heat to medium, add mushrooms and saute for a couple more minutes until softer and more fragrant. Add mushroom sauce, sugar and soy curls. Saute for another couple of minutes, then remove from heat.
To form dumplings, place ~2 tsp of the filling in the centre of the wrapper. Then close the sides and seal them.
Heat some water in a wide pan over medium heat, and place the bamboo steamer on top. Put some lettuce leaves on steamer to keep the dumplings from sticking. Once the water is boiling, then add the dumplings, cover with the top and leave to steam for about 12 minutes. If the water level becomes too low, add more.
Eat with hot chili oil or whatever dipping sauce you prefer. Enjoy!
I never really made omelettes before I was vegan – it was really only something I would eat at a restaurant. Vegan omelettes always seemed a bit weird to me. It makes sense that you can easily replace eggs in baking, but in an omelette, basically the only ingredient is egg.
However, I found a video recipe for chickpea omelettes and finally tried to make it. It turns out vegan omelettes are delicious!
Omelette recipe: (makes two omelettes)
2 tbsp flaxmeal + 5.5 tbsp water, left to sit for 5 minutes 1 cup chickpea flour 1 tbsp nutritional yeast 1/4 tsp turmeric 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp black salt 1 cup broth
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Heat a 35 cm/14 inch nonstick pan at medium heat with some oil. Then pour half of the batter into it and cook on one side for about 3 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Then use two spatulas to flip. Cook on the other side for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and add your fillings. Then fold the omelette over itself, remove from the heat, cover the pan and leave to sit for 3-5 minutes.
For the fillings, choose whatever you like. My favourite combination is soy chorizo (Trader Joe’s soyrizo is delicious, a few other brands have something similar), mushrooms, onions and vegan cheese.
How long have we been waiting for this moment? Two years? These two have been dancing around each other ever since Curtis returned to Ferndale a year and a half ago (and even before he left the show the first time!). We had to sit through months of them looking at each other longingly, culminating with Finn offering to pay him $10,000 just to leave town. Then there was Curtis’ desperately boring relationship with Becky. Thank god that’s over. Anyway..
Also this week, Nicole decided to make up for not celebrating Halloween by wearing something approximating a polar bear costume.
I rarely have anything to say about people’s outfits on this show, but I had to mention this one. It’s November in Auckland, not the dead of winter in Invercargill/Antarctica.
Damo took Dawn to a beauty salon before her wedding, which caused her skin to have an allergic reaction, and made Damo’s face look like this:
“Never trust a business with an unnecessary z in the title.”
In the end, Dawn and Ali got married without a hitch, so that was lovely.
Kylie decided that she absolutely has to marry Dylan, a man who she’s been with for barely a month, who just attempted suicide two weeks ago, and who has three dead wives, one of whom is her sister. What could possibly go wrong?
I guess she and Frank got married after being together for only two weeks, so this shouldn’t be too surprising.
Last but not least, Damo took Donny and Pele to the zoo, and left Pele, a four year old kid with diabetes, at the zoo alone, assuming that Lincoln would come pick him up. So responsible!
This weekend we had a vegan bake sale at my local vegan grocery (Vegan Haven), and I decided to make pumpkin donuts with a maple glaze. I decided to veganise this recipe. They turned out great!
I doubled it, replaced the cinnamon sugar topping with a maple glaze, and removed some of the spices as I’m not a big fan of ginger and cloves.
Pumpkin donuts:
7 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons vegan butter, room temperature
1/4 cup flaxmeal mixed with 3/4 cup water, left to sit for 10 minutes
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon nondairy milk mixed with 1 tbsp vinegar
425g (2 cups) pumpkin purée
Icing:
900g icing sugar, sifted
100g maple syrup
100g nondairy milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in one bowl.
In another bowl, whisk together vegan butter and sugar. Then whisk in pumpkin puree, nondairy milk/vinegar mixture, flaxmeal mixture and vanilla extract.
Add dry ingredients a little at a time, whisking to combine. When it becomes too thick to whisk, switch to a spatula and fold in the rest of the dry mixture.
Don’t use a stand mixer. I did, and it was a disaster. Flour was flying everywhere. Forget about it.
Now spread some clingfilm in a clean large bowl, and place the dough inside. Wrap the dough in the clingfilm and put in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or ideally overnight.
Take the dough out of the fridge, and split into two pieces, as this will make it easier to roll out.
Flour both the bottom and the top of the dough, and place on a floured surface.
Roll out the dough to ~1 1/4 cm (0.5 inch) thickness, and use cutters to cut into your desired size. I used a 9 cm cutter for the donuts and a 3 cm cutter for the holes. Place flour on the rolling pin too! This dough is very prone to sticking, even when chilled.
Once you have your shaped pieces, place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper on top. Make sure to flour this as well. I didn’t and it stuck.
Place the baking sheet in the fridge while you heat your oil and make the icing.
Heat oil in a deep fryer to 180°C (355 °F). While this heats, make the icing.
Combine all ingredients for the icing. Add the nondairy milk a bit at a time until the right consistency is reached. It should be very, very thick, but all the sugar should combine with the liquid.
Take your donut pieces out of the fridge.
Then fry your donuts for about 3 minutes, flipping halfway through. Don’t start your timer until the donuts have floated to the top (this will take about 10 seconds).
After removing the donuts, place on a cooling rack with paper towels below it to absorb the oil. Then after just a couple of minutes, while still warm, dip the doughnuts into the glaze, and place back on the cooling rack.
This recipe is pretty similar to the oatmeal cookies I posted about last week. However, I think it’s still worth sharing.
A few years ago I found this recipe, which I used to make when I wasn’t vegan. Now I’ve veganised it, but I’ve replaced half of the vegan butter with almond butter, and changed a few other things.
Recipe:
1/2 cup vegan butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1 1⁄2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp flax meal mixed with 5.5 tbsp water, left to sit for 5 minutes
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Combine vegan butter, almond butter, and sugar. Then add flax mixture and vanilla extract. Then add dry ingredients. Then add chocolate chips. Then chill mixture in the fridge for 2-4 hours, or overnight. Then shape into cookies and bake on baking sheet at 180°C for 15-25 minutes depending on the size and how crunchy you’d like the cookies to be.
