Author Archives: Silver Arrows

Vegan Tempeh Bites

A simple recipe for people who, like I, have simple tastes and simple cooking skills. Thanks to Mummy and Little Sister for teaching me how to make a vegan breadcrumb coating (I didn't know!). Unfortunately, now I am breading everything.

Serves 1

tempeh-7-cooked

Ingredients:

  • 2 slices of bread of your choice OR pre-made breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 pack (approx 100g) of tempeh
  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup flour of your choice
  • ~1/4 cup vegan milk of your choice
  • seasonings of your choice
Continue reading →

Delta Goodrem Hailing her Elite Masters?

A very strange old video from Delta Goodrem, before she hit the big time. Screenshots to follow:

There's some weird triangle-obsession going on here.

delta-triangle1
Here we go. She starts off with looking through a triangle...

delta-triangle2
... okay, so she's supposed to be framing a scene; I get it. But I don't remember triangular TV screens being fashionable or even in existence back then or, well, EVER. If you're gonna frame a scene, you're going to form a rectangle, right? How is a triangle going to be of any use?

delta-triangle3
Oh dear. Oh dear, this is bad. Now it's an eye in a triangle...

Continue reading →

More Vegan Cooking, Wildflowers, and Never Take Advice on Pronunciation from a North American

cookies

Since I got the egg-replacer, I've been able to make vegan chocolate chip cookies! Another recipe from Ms Cupcake. The best price I was able to find was in Holland and Barrett, surprisingly, at £3.10 for a box. Cheaper, actually, because it was during the BHP event.

Now these were tricky biscuits (pun intended. MOAR). They totally don't look cooked when they are, and so we ended up overbaking them. No seriously, even when they are cooked, your finger goes straight through them to the baking tray, they are so soft. But they do firm up when cooled, so bear that in mind if you do try this recipe. They came out a bit too crunchy because of the overbaking, but they tasted nice enough.

jaffas
Nommy nommy nommy nommy jaffa caaaaaaaaaakes! Continue reading →

Cheezly Review and Other Vegan Random Stuff

I'll tell you one food I miss from my pre-vegan days and that is pizza. So last week, for the first time since going vegan, I finally got round to making my own pizza base and got out the Cheezly White Cheddar style that I'd bought from Whole Foods Market some time ago.

Now imagine that you could make a cheese substitute out of potato... Continue reading →

No-poo Hair Washing and Oil Pulling

Note before you read: Oil pulling is best done with organic cold-pressed raw sesame oil. It's way more palatable and less likely to induce gagging. I personally use the ClearSpring brand from Real Foods. Coconut and sunflower are also good. Do not use olive oil, trust me.

Note #2: Do not use the bicarb no-poo, it's REALLY bad for your hair. I now use Mistry's Shampoo, or you could try making a decoction of soapwort/soapnuts/shikakai or a combination of those. Both should be allowed to soak for about 10 minutes before rinsing with vinegar water. Don't use things that are alkaline on your hair and scalp. That's enough note.

I've been seeing a lot of websites extolling the wonder of the no-poo method for washing one's hair. The formula is: Continue reading →

Crotchety Ole Knitter

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been learning crochet recently. I found it a lot more complicated than knitting and it took me a while to figure out the technique, but I'm totally with it now. Here is the first thing I made that came out:

headband
Headband pattern by epicdabundance.
Flower pattern by happyberry.

Made more:

headbands
Flower pattern by happyberry.

And a matching set for my niece and her dollie: Continue reading →

Mma Ramotswe and the Mystery of the Continuity Errors

I posted about a couple of continuity errors in my last post, and since I am reading the series again, this time I am taking notes. I am only up to book 3 at the moment, but I've already got a list for you. The widowed/forever single status confusion of Mr JLB Matekoni and Mma Makutsi, he did correct in later editions (although these late spouses don't ever get any mention again).

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Okay, here we go!

Book 1 — The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

  1. pg 61 — "Mma Makutsi was the widow of a teacher." But throughout the rest of the series, it is stated that she has had no romance or any male interest in her life, with the exception of one line later in the series where this mysterious late husband is finally referenced.
  2. pg 78 —"...sent off for, and received, a manual on private detection." This assumes she bought it by mail order, which doesn't make so much sense, since in Limpopo Academy it is implied that she found a stray copy in a bargain bin.
  3. pg 86 — "Mma Ramotswe had known Mr J.L.B. Matekoni for years. He came from Mochudi..."
  4. pg 86 — "Mr J.L.B. Matekoni was forty five — ten years older than Mma Ramotswe..." Remember this. According to this line, Matekoni is 45, which would make Mma Ramotswe 35 at this point. (It was also just after this paragraph in the earlier editions where the original text said "and she had wondered why he had never married." Later changed to "remarried".)
  5. pg 105 — The book is called The Principles of Private Investigation by Clovis Andersen. It is never referred to by this title again.
  6. pg 150 — "Mma Ramotswe had been an eight-year-old girl then... and her heart filled with pride when she thought of all they had achieved in thirty short years." Thirty years ago, she was eight? Would that not make her now 38, not 35?
  7. pg 229 — "She telephoned Tlokweng Speedy Motors... but the receptionist was out to lunch and he answered." Who is this mysterious receptionist? She never appears again. In fact, in the third book, when Mma Makutsi starts managing the garage, it is clear that there is no office staff but Mr JLB Matekoni.

Book 2 — Tears of the Giraffe

Continue reading →

Bush Tea, Detectives and more Vegan WIN!

bushteamug

One thing since becoming vegan: I've become a lot more health-conscious than I was before (more health-conscious, not necessarily more pro-active). Ground flaxseed can be liberally sprinkled onto a chip sandwich and you won't even know it's there. I've also been drinking bush tea now and then. It's actually quite nice with one stevia tablet per mug. I've read a lot more about the benefits of rooibos (the proper name for the bush tea plant). It's supposed to make a really good toner, so I've been trying it on my face, but not sure if it's made much difference to my complexion (which, incidentally, is worse than Mma Makutsi's).

Speaking of Mma Makutsi, I've been reading the Mma Ramotswe series again, and I'm finding Mma Makutsi really irritating. Sort of like a Motswana Maya Fey. After everything Mma Ramotswe does for her, she is so damn selfish and ungrateful. Take take take take, and then dream that Mma Ramotswe is her subordinate. Go set up your own detective agency, Mma Makutsi, and see how far you get.

Another thing, I get the feeling the author is getting a bit jaded with the series, what do you think? I mean, seriously, what happened to Mr Polopetsi? Continue reading →

Knitting Spree!

I've been into knitting on and off since about the age of 8 — mostly off. A few years back I did make a scarf and a few arm socks (arm warmers, really), but the knitting bug is back and I've been a bit more ambitious this time round.

The book I used to learn: Usborne Knitting from Start to Finish.

Starting off with...

dolliecollar

Pink and black scarf for Mimu on the left. I kept wondering why my scarves always curled. Unfortunately the book doesn't mention that stocking stitch will always curl to a greater or lesser extent unless you border it. For things which are going to be seamed though, it's fine. The collar on the right was supposed to be a baby hat, but it all went wrong. My moss stitch turned into ribbing and the rest of it was all of a muddle. It ended up turning into a dress, and when that failed too, it turned into a woolly collar.

bluehat01
I thought, never again with the hats, but found a simpler pattern and...

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Vegan Win: Tofu Yum Recipe!

Here is a super awesome fantastic 100% vegan parcel of yumminess!

Disclaimer: This is an ad-lib recipe. I am a terrible cook. I hate cooking. Regardless, these are so super yum that I am willing to make that sacrifice.

This is a recipe my sister first got from BBC Food

I've adapted it to my tastes and inadvertently made it vegan-friendly. Yummy yummy yummy.

You need:

  • 1 pack of Cauldron Firm Tofu or similar (~400g)
  • 1 pack of Jus-Rol Filo pastry - if using frozen, let it defrost at room temperature according to instructions
  • Sweetcorn
  • Salt, to taste
  • Fresh or dried thyme
  • Melted Vitalite, or a bland vegetable oil of your choice.
  • Two tea towels
Continue reading →

Japanese Learning Resources

Here's a list of the resources I use/have used to study Japanese and my thoughts on them. Listed in the order that I first used them.

Japanese from Zero! Book 1 (George Trombley and Yukari Takenaka)

Pros:

  • Takes you through hiragana gradually.
  • Doubles up as a workbook to reinforce learning.
  • Teaches in a way that you will remember.

Cons:

  • I found the learning rate too slow. Not many sentence constructions were introduced and I eventually got bored of it.
  • Too much emphasis on polite form -we need to learn the plain form, too!
  • I would have preferred to learn how to construct verbs earlier on. Unfortunately, that comes towards the end of the book, and then they only teach you godan verbs (i.e. -u verbs) conjugated to polite present tense, so I was under the false impression that 見る (miru) would actually conjugate to 見ります (mirimasu), because they didn't explain -ru verbs at all (or indeed acknowledge there were two groups of verbs).
  • Goes into numbers almost straight away. You are just presented with a long list and told to memorise them. Hardly a good way to learn.
  • Not really a con, but... Continue reading →

Forum shill gets busted!

shillsarealive

This is kinda old, but I thought I'd share it here for those who don't know. That site is only good for laughing at the silly stories now. The GLP referred to in the article is godlikeproductions.com. The original post is here:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2111346/pg7

It all seems a little bait and it wouldn't surprise me if this was just someone trolling, but who realy knows.

Agent Pixied for posterity:

shill-busted

Full article here:
http://www.insanemedia.net/forum-shill-gets-busted-ats-and-glp-censor-n-7015a/2924
Short extract to follow:

A Forum Shill gets busted. Something very interesting happened over at GLP March 24th [2013] at 9:28 pm. Something that did not go unnoticed by GLP posters and many others around the interwebz. On page 7 of a thread titled "Medical Type Says Sandy Hook is Total BS", a user from "Kazakhstan" posted the following:

Re: Medical Type Says Sandy Hook is Total Bulls**t

[0x1a970000, 0x1ab00000, 0x27570000>
[rdpclip.exe, "iostatZd15.1"]

Continue reading →

Skype installs malware toolbars

You were very fortunate to get an older version of the Babylon virus. The newer "improved" version installs a totally separate, disguised and totally unidentified program titled Browser Manager. While that is still on the hard drive, about:config resets will not work, as the last Babylon file, of 30 total Babylon files, cannot be reset, not by you and not even by Mozilla. When FFX restarts, this program re-installs Babylon, and you never knew it was there. — jaguar6cy

Please watch out when installing Skype! It seems the current installer is bundled with a malicious toolbar called Delta, which from what I've seen, seems to be by the same malware-factory that created the ebil Babylon toolbar.

What is sneaky about these installers (and I'm including the just-as-evil CNET malware installer here) is that, just like SecuROM, Continue reading →

TS4 Previews yay

In an exclusive teleconference with EA, T$R's Steve has been able to leak us the following previews of The Sims 4!

In his dreams 😀

The Agent Pixies were revealed first by, I believe, AllGamesBeta.com. Please click the link to see the rest.

UPDATE: Official site is live: http://thesims.com

One thing I have to say, they don't look so puddin-faced as TS3 Sims. That was reason #1 that TS3 was a DNW for me.

ts4-preview0 Continue reading →