vegan

Moroccan Almond Milk

Almond milk seems to be growing more and more in popularity and it is probably my favourite non-dairy milk. Soy milk with its eggy taste never quite grew on me and I tend to find rice and oat milk either thin or starchy. Almond milk, preferably the unsweetened kind, has a really subtle flavour, is wonderful poured over cereal and creamy enough to make a decent dairy milk replacer in milky coffees. There was a summer when I still lived in London when I made a lot of my own almond milk – a great alternative to the rather pricey packs of almond milk stocked by most organic supermarkets and that somewhat surprisingly tend to be full of a whole lot of sweeteners, thickeners and emulsifiers (and shockingly small quantities of almonds). Thankfully, this now appears to be changing, thanks in part to the girls behind The Pressery who sell their own freshly made almond milk across London. I was

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Coconut and mixed berry financiers (vegan)

    I finally bought a sofa. In case you are wondering, yes, I have been in Brussels for over a month now and have been without a sofa the entire time. That current state of affairs will likely continue until the end of June as that is approximately when my sofa will be delivered. But I don’t care. It took me forever to pick a sofa (I am the most indecisive person when it comes to decisions with a hefty price tag attached), but I am super happy with my choice. After weeks of looking at sofas in furniture stores, browsing pinterest for inspiration and googling sofa beds for hours after work I finally managed to pick one. I test sat it in store once more on Saturday and had another look at the colours on offer before finally buying it. I chose a beautiful three seater sofa in a salt & pepper coloured wool covering and that just happens to also

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Roasted Hazelnut, Sea Salt and Date Brownies

Alessandro and I are spending this week on the slopes. Such a ‘settimana bianca’ (a ‘white’ week) is by now a yearly tradition for us. After my first tentative steps on skis on a schooltrip to Austria as a teenager I am now able to tackle almost all slopes and dare I say, even enjoy myself a good deal doing so. While there are a few small slopes not too far from Rome, once you have mastered the basics, they are a bit short and boring. So our yearly ‘settimana bianca’ now takes us up to Northern Italy, to the Dolomites, to San Cassiano in Alta Badia to be precise. A trip we are now doing for the second time with a group of about 10 or so friends. While I feel sorry for anyone else staying in our small hotel given our inevitable loud chatter in the bar after a long day on the slopes (no doubt fuelled by

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Garam Masala & Coconut Stove-Top Granola

In case you have already made your way through your stack of new-reads acquired over the holidays, I would encourage you to track down a copy of Slow Food Nation, a wonderful read that does not seem to be getting the attention I think it deserves. I picked this book up on a whim when I was present-hunting just before Christmas and it is an incredibly well-written book by Slow Food’s founder Carlo Petrini. For those of you not familiar with Slow Food, the organisation’s mission is to “defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives.” Today the organisation counts over 100,000 members across the globe who, among other things, are active in seeking the protection of traditional foods, set up tasting seminars and work with those in the food industry to encourage them to source locally grown food. Rather refreshingly, there is no preaching involved in

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