baking again

Baking again finally.........it feels good

this is my Simplicity Chocolate Cake recipe and has easily been made into a vegan cake.   I have used Nuttelex margarine, Orgran Egg Replacer and rice milk.

It has turned out so moist and rich there is no way you would think it was different from any other chocolate cake.  This would be good even if you just needed to be dairy free and not vegan.

I haven't really been up to baking for months so it felt good to make something.....and eat it too, of course

playing....

playing with fibres and ribbons on a new journal spine....

hope for 2012

So I guess this is the time we all wish each other a happy new year. Everyone goes around saying it but who really genuinely means it? ( Is it like the people who ask you how you are but they don't really want to know)  Why do we do that I wonder, where did it come from?  It seems like some kind of corny Victorian tradition but maybe it started  before that?

My nan was of the generation where new years day was celebrated as much as Xmas day.  Another roast dinner and hot dessert on a day of about 35 degrees.  Poor mum was the one who always had to cook this hot meal only a week after she has been through it on Xmas day.  The oven would be turned on at about 9am and we would all be dying in the heat.  Mum usually up until recent years still likes to celebrate new year's day in one way or another, but for me it really is just another day

By the time we were teenagers mum saw the light for xmas and she cooked the  turkey the day before then we had it cold for Xmas lunch with ham and lots of salads and the only hot food was baby boiled spuds in butter and mint.

I am not knocking people who say "happy new year" we all do it, we always have, out of habit or maybe some people really really mean it with the best of intentions.
I have been wondering lately though how we say happy new year but don't really mean it.  It just comes out.  It does nothing, It doesn't stop people being sick, people dying or having extremely bad luck, or not getting what they had hoped for.

I realised this as I had it said to me in Xmas cards etc and I thought how silly it seemed when I have never felt so ill as I have lately.  Two trips to the doctor in this last week.  Before that still having to cope with Xmas and now the heat.
It is still just said anyway, even though I am ill.  Even my own brother sends a text from Brisbane "happy New Year", without a thought in a world.

Also mum is so very ill so how silly it would be to say happy new year to her. I tried to put some thought into it and said to her lets hope this year will have improvements and breakthroughs for us.

I know people mean well by wishing people a happy new year.  I have done it for nearly as long as I can remember.  But really, 99% of the time is there any genuineness behind it all.

It is cliche but people always say if you don't have your health you have nothing.  When I was young I used to think oh what a crock of shit that is, but, this is SOOOO true.  So if you do want a happy new year do everything in your power to keep good health  because THAT is the key to everything, not money or job security or any of that bullshit stuff.
If you don't have good health and especially if it is getting worse lets hope this IS a year of  hope and new discoveries for our health, and even better maybe we will have improvements.
I am not one for resolutions anymore either. Only because they would only last a day.  I am pathetic like that.   I certainly was into them when I was a teenager. I thought they could change my life.

my new adopted baby

I want you to meet Fawny.  He is my new baby.  Well part of him is mine.  There are quite a few of us in the animal welfare and Ban live export groups I am in on Facebook who wanted to save the life of Bobby Calf.  He is a Jersey, isn't he gorgeous!!  We do as much work as we can in animal welfare and working towards the banning of live exports and factory farming.

  Other people put in money to buy and save Bobby Calves too.  Some of us decided to do it too.

We only had to put in a few dollars each and he now lives with a wonderful guy, an Animal Rights/Welfare Lawyer in Queensland.

I wish we all could  take it in turns having Fawny each weekend, and I certainly wish we could save them all

I hope we can buy some more calves soon.

The male calves are the "waste product" of the Dairy Industry.  The cows are kept in a constant state of pregnancy so they will produce milk.

They are like humans they only have milk when they have a baby.   It's not natural for them to constantly produce milk.   Many are slaughtered after 5 years or less of misery for meat as they are spent as breeders. Not for human meat but are churned up for pet food.

The male calves are not even fed, treated badly and slaughtered within 5 days.  This is all so humans can drink milk.   So if you MUST drink milk buy it from a local organic farmer, they supply to the major supermarkets and to your local deli and supermarkets too.  The more you support the cheap supermarket brand milk, and all the major brands too, the more your are supporting this industry.   I know groceries are expensive but isn't it better to buy less and buy better quality and local and maybe not buy a few of the products you might not really need.

I just have to add, can't help myself, all dairy product industry contribute to this, icecream, yoghurt makers you name it but Cadbury are one of the worst.  Think about that with your next "glass and a half"

Some calves are kept aside and put in wooden crates without seeing the light of day even once for months.  They sleep and live in their own excrement and this is done for the product we know as veal.   keeping them in the dark and almost starving them keeps their meat white so people can enjoy their veal.  The female calves of course only have a life of misery to look forward to the same as their mothers,

700 000 Bobby Calves are slaughtered each year in Australia.  Imagine how many in the world are slaughtered as waste each year or kept for veal in those conditions.  This is all for us humans to drink milk which is not even good for us.  It is purely meant for baby cows so they can gain about 250kgs in one year or more

maybe you could consider other alternatives.  I drink rice milk now and I love it, it has a fab flavour and also oat milk too is very nice.  Soy is very strong but there are so many other choices and please don't eat veal.

Sending you hugs Fawny I feel so good you are part of my family kiss kiss