February was busy with back-to-school, birthday celebrations, Shrove Tuesday, a mouse murder (by our cat), bike rides, and quite a few new recipes. We ate lots of Asian and Mexican recipes as befits a month of hot weather.  I am glad summer is now over and we will have cooler weather but I will miss all the salads and summer fruit.  It was also a month of big religious events such as Lent, Ramadam and Lunar New Year. 

Above is one of our thrown together salads.  This one had fried caramelised tofu, which we first had in rice paper rolls but found it is every bit as good in a bowl with sticky rice (from a microwave packet), edamame, cucumber, red cabbage, carrot, spring onions and furikake.
 

 

We are still trying new vegan foods since Sylvia went vegan at the start of the year.  We have had Milk tea boba mochi and Pickle crisps both of which have been new favourites for Sylvia.  I liked the crisps but am not a mochi fan.  Sylvia tells me not all mochi is created equal and she loved the above milk tea boba one much more than the below matcha mochi with the bean paste.

More vegan goodies: agar agar (for feta cheese below), Beefy Brats (still unopened but destined for greatness, we hope), the not good mochi, Wildy Good Cheese Cauli Poppers (excellent) and Pana vegan Rocky road Chocolate.  The chocolate was amazing.  Sylvia was excited she could eat it because it was peanut-free and had vegan marshmallow.  It is lucky to get one or the other and rare to get both of them in a any sort of rocky road.  This one also had vegan raspberry lollies and finely chopped almonds.  

Many months ago, I was given the olive oil bottle on the left by a friend who had two.  In February I finally finished the commercial oil spray can.  Since then I have had my olive oil in this bottle with a pouring spout and a spray mechanism.  This spray doesn't froth up like the commercial one so I like it better.  Next to my new olive oil is a pretty bottle of LaEspanole olive oil with an olive flower pattern and my favoured local olive oil from Cobram.

Sylvia has had some chia pudding breakfasts in the last few weeks.  She makes chia pudding with soy milk and serves it with coconut yoghurt, thawed strawberries, sliced bananas and my toasted muesli.  This seems too much milkiness for me but Sylvia really enjoyed it.

I was intrigued by this vegan cashew feta recipe which had agar agar and olive brine.  It was blended and then cooked.  As I have not used agar agar much, I was unsure if I cooked it long enough.  It tasted delicious as a spreadable feta but not quite as easy to crumble as the recipe suggested.  I definitely want to try it again.

Sylvia made a really nice Pasta salad with jalapeno and chorizo from TikTok.  It was quite spicy for me with the jalapenos but I really loved the vegan chorizo chopped up small and fried into crispy crumbles.  It was great for one of the last warm days of summer.

We have enjoyed the spiced rice from the meal prep burritos in a few meals - it is an easy way to add more flavour to meals.   In the above photo I had quesadillas with the spiced rice, lettuce, cabbage, red capsicum, yoghurt, salsa and feta.

This is another very satisfying meal with spiced rice topped with lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, corn, seasoned black beans, feta and crispy fried Field roast chorizo crumbles (leftover from the pasta salad).  

We have been enjoying La Costena whole black beans in Mexican style bowls.  Then we accidentally bought the La Costena refried pinto beans.  The labels are pretty similar.  We used it because it was there and enjoyed it.  When we went to buy it again, we checked the ingredients in the supermarket and found it had pork lard in it.  Urgh!  So sadly this is off the menu now.  But the whole black beans are vegan so we are still buying those.

My worst cooking experience of the month was making a stuffed onions recipe that Sylvia had chosen.  It was a recipe I didn't understand, it took forever, the ingredients didn't work as I expected and I thought the end result was not worth the stress.  My idea of stuffed onions was a British one where the onions are hollowed out and stuffed.  Sylvia's stuffed onion recipe was more Greek and Middle Eastern where each layer of onion is boiled and stuffed.  I learnt the hard way that you don't separate the layers until you boil the onions.  I didn't like having the different size layers and also having to cut down the side of the layers being stuffed, Even worse was adding faux mince meat for Sylvia.  Of course it knocked all the ingredients off balance and I had to tweak and tweak and tweak!  Next time I will make these baked onions with hazelnut, sultana and feta stuffing.

Sylvia made Sesame noodles from TikTok (rhi.scran): ramen noodles with a sauce of tahini, soy sauce, rice vinegar and maple syrup.  We served it with lettuce, red cabbage, carrot, cucumber and furikake.  After the photo, I remembered to eat the edamame we had heated.  I enjoyed the noodles much more than Sylvia, which is not surprising given that I love tahini and she is not much of a fan. 

Sylvia made some very impressive Tempah and black bean tacos for dinner.  Another TikTok find from rhi.scran.  I had mine  -  The filling were made in the frypan with tempeh and blackbeans, onions, garlic, seasonings, lime juice and water, staffed into tortillas and baked in the oven.  I served mine with guacamole, yoghurt, pickled red onion, lettuce and cabbage. 

I made the Sticky miso tofu that Sylvia found on Plant Based RD (I found out that RD at means registered dietician not Road).  The miso made it a lot creamier than the fried caramelised tofu you can see at the top photo.  I prefer the caramelised tofu but both are great.  What was a great revelation was tossing the chunks of tofu into cornflour and seasoning and then air frying it.  It was so crispy and delicious.  We served it with sticky rice, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, carrot and edamame.  You might have noticed how much we have loved pairing lettuce and raw cabbage this summer!

I found this Sweet Plus Dubai chocolate in Terra Madre.  It was pretty delicious and cheaper (and smaller) than some other bars I had seen.  I can't find it on their website so will need to check it out in store when I am next there.

Sylvia's favourite chocolate of the month was also pistachio.  She was very happy to find the Loco Love's Pistachio Mylk Praline.  It was pricey at $11 for 70g.  It had not been easy for Sylvia to find so she was delighted both to be able to eat it and with the bar.  She thought it a bit like a vegan Dubai chocolate but I did not, though we both agreed it was delicious.

Shrove Tuesday always a great reason to make pancakes.  I have fond memories of eating pancakes at this time of year as a kid before giving up dessert (which we called "sweets") for Lent.  My childhood pancakes were never as decadent as these vegan chocolate pancakes I made this year.  I wanted them extra chocolate so I added an extra 1/2 cup cocoa instead of 1/3 cup of the flour.  I did not have choc chips but added 2 extra tbsp of sugar and used wholemeal flour.  I cooked them with olive oil spray over medium to medium hot heat on my cast iron frypan for 3 minutes on each side.  (The timer was more reliable than checking for bubbles.)  They were delicious and not too sweet.  

I served the chocolate pancakes with a strawberry chia jam (1 cup frozen strawberries, 1-3 tbsp water, 2-3 shakes of mixed spice, the juice of half a lemon, 2-4 tbsp maple syrup cooked on the stovetop  about 5 minutes till thickened slightly), Sanitariums's vegan chocolate soy ice cream, Billy Van Creamy's vegan caramel cashew ice cream and maple syrup.  Totally amazing!  The recipe made a lot for the two of us.  (This is not in the spirit of Shrove Tuesday to have pancakes leftover for Ash Wednesday when Lent starts but we are not practicing Catholics!)  Next time I think that half the pancake mixture would be find and we would both love more of that chia strawberry jam.  

We held a Birthday tea for Sylvia's birthday.  She had cucumber and cashew cheese spread sandwiches, sushi stacks, crisps, fairy bread, vegan marshmallow teacups, pink iced cupcakes and fruit.  It was a small and relaxing get together.  My mum brought the cupcakes and my dad helped saw through the old padlock on our back shed that refused to open up after I locked it (and I remembered the code).

Here are some of Sylvia's birthday presents: an Angelina ballerina book, stickers, snacks, chocolates, jewellery, a butterfly hair piece, a photo frame, a Tori Amos CD, a tapestry purse, a tiny tea set and jewellery holders.  So much good stuff.

I also took Sylvia for a little drive in the west of Melbourne which included a visit to the Damona vegan cheese factory where we got all these offcuts cheaply.  There are packets of American cheese, feta, Pecorino, Brie which cost $35 in total.  We weighed the huge bag of feta a week or two after buying (and using) it.  It weighed almost 700 grams and it was excellent.  The American cheese was great on pizza and quesadillas.  The Pecorino was really good on a Minestrone but had to be crumbled because it did not grate well.  We still have quite a bit of it left.

While out in the West I bought some Pistachio Kunafa Sptead from ipantry in Sunshine.  I bought a jar of this from a local Middle Eastern shop last year and loved it so much I went back for more a few months later.  They had stopped selling it as the Dubai chocolate craze is on the wane, apparently.  Sunshine was the closest place I could buy it, though I had to order online at the door so they could give me the jars.  I bought two because if it is not being sold widely I probably wont go out of my way to buy it again for a long time.  It is so delicious and creamy and crunchy but is so sweet and decadent too!

My final meal for the month was a quick Burger bowl (inspired by the one I made in my July 2025 IMK post).  I really loved the vegan cauliflower and cheese burger from the Coles plant based range called Nature's Kitchen.  We are not going to Coles very often lately due to the some of their underhand practices but these burgers call my name.  I at it with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, carrot, cornichon pickles, pickled red onions, yoghurt and tomato sauce.  (The tomato sauce is one from my sister at Christmas that has a personalised label! So cool!).  

I also used up the last of the packet of parmesan cheese.  Sylvia had loved it before going vegan but I don't eat it nearly as much.  With her now being vegan, my eating habits are also changing.  I am not sure I will continue to buy parmesan regularly, I haven't bought eggs fall year and I only have bought the vintage tasty cheese but none of our regular mozzarella grated blend.  I am eating less sweet foods as being vegan has limited the amount of sweet baking Sylvia and I are eating from fancy bakeries.  Overall the change is positive and as you can see, we are finding lots of new vegan meals to enjoy!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.

January was a busy month of holidays with lots of stone fruit and salads, swimming and sun cream.  It was a dry month with 2 scorching days of 44 Celcius  that left sad brown patches in the garden and kept us indoors with the air con on.  I had holidays on the first and last week in January so had time to relax and also time to go out.  In fact on the first week of January I ate out 6 out of 7 days.  That is a lot for me.  I will write more about eating out and other outings in My Monthly Chronicles soon.

At the start of January Sylvia changed her diet from vegetarian to vegan.  We have always eaten a lot of vegan food and now eat even more, though I still have some yoghurt and cheese on meals such as the above nachos and salad.  For a while Sylvia was so keen on eggs that it is odd not to have eggs is in the fridge.  Other than that, it has meant checking out lots of new products in the supermarket and trying new ideas in the kitchen. 
 

January starts with the end of the festive season.  We took down the tree, put away the cards and finished the treats.  There was leftover Christmas pudding, stollen, panforte and shortbread.   

One of my holiday meals that was easy to make and wonderful to eat was a Festive Roast Potato Salad that used up some of our Christmas leftovers and it is on my blog.

Vegan products 1: We tried lots of new vegan snacks.  One of my favourites was this bag of DJ&A mushroom crisps.  They were crispy dried button small mushrooms with very moreish seasoning.

Vegan products 2:  Damona vegan cheese is the only one that Sylvia has really loved.  She also is quite a fan of the Numo caramel chocolate bars - one of the good reasonably priced chocolate treats from the supermarket.  Which brings me to Sweet William rice crackle choc koalas.  I've never been a huge fan of their chocolate.  She liked the Plantein sweet chilli tenders but I was not so keen.  The FunDay caramel chews are nice but not really my thing.

Vegan products 3: Some vegan products were no surprise.  I have used Damona cheese before and I don't think it is a secret that Oreos are vegan.  We were impressed by the Oreo creme eggs, which were on sale when we needed to spend money quickly to get cash out at the supermarket for a purchase.  I was most amazed by Hellman's mayonnaise (because Hellmans do good egg mayonnaise it was good to see they can also do a vegan one that is not ridiculously sweet) and that our local Italian supermarket sells plant based Nutella that tastes good (and is made with chickpeas and rice syrup).

Vegan products 4: Sylvia really likes these little chia, rice and chocolate puddings.  I don't like those sort of desserts and was just amused by their name: Fancy Plants.

We returned to crispy tofu cutlets which we made in December 2023.  This time we tried in in the air fryer with a spray of oil.  I also double dipped it in the milk and breadcrumbs.  We served it with mash, gravy and green vegies.   Very good.  Perhaps not quite as golden as when shallow fried but delicious and crispy. 

Tofu cutlets always seem quite old-school vegetarian.  I quite like a lot of the older vegetarian recipes that have lots of nuts, tofu and beans rather than all the mock meat of today.  So I was delighted recently when Sylvia discovered the joys of reading my Moosewood Cookbook.  Of course she found it on social media but thank god someone is still talking about it.

One of our regular hot weather meals has been rice paper rolls.  We have been filling them with vermicelli noodles, vegies and fried caramelised tofu from micadeli.  That sticky tofu is so delicious we often eat some of it by itself but it also gives great flavour to the rice paper rolls without making it soggy.  I find that with the thick tofu sauce, the rice paper rolls it is plenty of flavour without a dipping sauce.  Mind you, I find that it thickens pretty quickly.  If I add 1-2 tbsp water to the sauce it means my sticky sauce doesn't quickly get dried on the bottom of my cast iron frypan.

It has been a month of lots of chopping up salad vegies but we have also been discovering some great new recipes that are bound to be favourites because they offer a lot for little effort.  

Another favourite was Zucchini pesto from Plant You.  It a matter of roasting zucchini and garlic and then blitzing them with cashews, basil, nooch, lemon and seasoning.  The sauce is quite velvety and lighter than regular pesto.  I really like that it holds its green colour longer.  It's been excellent with pasta especially on the first night when we had it with tofu bacon.

The zucchini pesto was great for lots of meals.  I had it for lunch with crackers rocket, capsicum and cherries.  (Mmmmm, cherries!)  I stirred some pesto into potato scones and then dipped the scones in more pesto.  And I had a lovely lunch of leftover pesto pasta with green capsicum, peas, tomatoes and cheese chunks.  (I had also wished I had celery in the fridge for it but we were out.)  

We tried the meal prep burritos - also from Plant You.  Sylvia was keen to have burritos  whereas I prefer a burrito bowl.  Overall it was very good with Mexican spiced rice, tofu "beef" and chipotle lime cashew.  We loved the spiced rice.  I really liked the cashew cream, though Sylvia found it a bit sweet and not salty enough.  And of course we had lots of vegies.  

I was not a big fan of the tofu beef.  I didn't really like the overall texture of the chunks of spiced tofu and also felt it was not dark enough.  The rice and tofu were similar colours and I felt there should have been more difference.  My preference if I was to have these chunks would be a dark sauce rather than just a spice mix.  We found it was improved with a tin of whole black beans in a seasoned sauce - that you can see below.  Alternately it would be good to have the tofu cut smaller or grated and then fried up with brown lentils and finely chopped walnuts with a bit more of a sauce.  

The recipe for the meal prep burritos, was intended to make 10-12 burritos so it lasted us a few meals.  On the second night we had it for tea, we remembered that we had bought corn chips and this went very well with it.  

We have made the Mexican spiced rice again.  I have tried a couple of Mexican spiced rice recipes in the past but they have been fiddly and stuck to the bottom of the saucepan or taken a while in the microwave.  I am not sure it this rice was nicely fluffy without sticking because my paranoia about burning led me to use 4 and 1/2 cups of stock rather than 3 cups.  I think that the rice might also work with brown rice instead of basmati.

This meal looks similar to the meal prep burrito bowls but on this occasion I only made the spiced rice and did not bother with the tofu and cashew cream.  On top of the rice was grated carrot, celery, capsicum, tomato, lettuce, roasted almonds, diced cheese, yoghurt and chipotle plus Sylvia's seasoned chickpeas.  

It is just the thing to eat in front of the telly on a hot day and watching the tennis as I marvel at the skill and athleticism of the players, with the soundtrack of the thwack of the ball and squeak of the sneakers in the quiet moments between commentary and cheers!

On one summer day when we were busy Sylvia made nachos by layering corn chips, whole black beans from a tin, and grated Damona cheese. I topped mine with salsa, lettuce, tomato, purple cabbage, red capsicum and yoghurt.  You can see the final dish at the top of the post!  It was excellent. Just the thing for a night I was more busy washing all the potting mix off my arms than preparing dinner.

This was the work before our nachos dinner: re-potting the camellia.  I have had the plant for about 20 years and it was ailing so we took it out of its pot and found it was really root-bound.  It took a lot of work to take the dirt from around the roots so we could re-plant it in a larger pot.  I'd like to say it is flourishing now but it is a bit sad.  It is hard to know how much is from the heatwaves soon after or the shock of a new home..   

Sylvia is quite happy to eat the plant based Golden Gaytime ice creams.  I don't love the dairy Golden Gaytimes as much as I used to as a kid but I really liked this Lamington version.  It had a lot of chocolate with the coconut ice cream.  I know it is traditional to have the biscuit crumb coating but surely a Lamington Golden Gaytime could have some coconut flakes in the coating.

We had a trip across the river to the Melbourne's eastern suburbs to pick up this sweet little Tiffany lamp that Sylvia bought online.  It's looking lovely on her desk.

I made a collage birthday card for my mum.  Cakes, flowers and a cup of tea are her sort of thing.  We had a lovely celebration meal by the seaside restaurant.  I have written a post about lunch: At the Heads, Barwon Heads.

While out looking for second hand books to use for collage, Sylvia found a childhood favourite: Angelina Ballerina.  It made for a cute collage to hang on her wall.

We made some donations to the op shop.  I found a food processor that I had not used for 10 years.  It still worked so I hope someone else will find it useful.  I also reluctantly put this picture in to the op shop.  The framed poster has sentimental value because I bought it when in Berlin decades ago.  It is from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and is a photograph by Eugene Atget who was a photographer in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.  

The photo on the poster was taken by Atget in about 1900 of a house at 54 Rue Vieille du Temple on the corner of Rue des France Bourgeoise in the Marias in Paris.  It was built of stone, when most houses in Paris were made of wood, in the early 16th Century by the wealthy Jean Hérouet, a royal treasurer.  It was restored in the 19th Century, badly damaged by the Luftwaffe in World War II and subsequently rebuilt.  On our last trip to Paris, we stayed nearby in the Marais, but I did not know the connect with the poster at that time.

I have always loved looking at the blur of a human figure who was moving too fast for the long exposure needed by cameras in that time.  But I have too many pictures to find a home for it and hope that someone else gets as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

Much as I try not to accumulate too much a birthday is a time for a few fun presents.  An old plate, a cat and a book on a card, little elephant candles and a literary feminist book.  I am also looking forward to some experience presents.

Another fine meal was a One Pot Pearl Couscous with onion, kale, carrots, celery, sun dried tomatoes and chickpeas.  We added more vegies because we ran out of zucchini.  The coconut milk and nooch at the end took it up a notch to be something we want to repeat.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post's url to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for hosting this event that brings together wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.  

 

On the weekend I had one of the wonderful summer moments when I joined my family to celebrate my mum's birthday at a restaurant called At the Heads in Barwon Heads.  It literally was on stilts over the sea.  I had such a nice time I wanted to share some photos.  However when I got home, I found I had very little photos of the food.  So I will have to make up for that with photos of the beach. 

Barwon Heads, where the Barwon River meets the Bass Strait, is best known for being the town where the Aussie television series SeaChange was filmed 25 years ago.  At the Heads blue weatherboard shed was the exterior for Diver Dan's boatshed cafe.  I think I might have gone there years ago but maybe I just went past it.  Driving over the iconic wooden bridge, I could have seen At the Heads if I had not been too busy checking the GPS as I know I was already running late.  

Barwon Heads was busy on that beautiful summer's day.  By the time I arrived at the restaurant late, I was met with sympathy and we all exchanged our stories of the difficulties in finding a parking spot and how far we had to walk.  It was worth the effort to walk into the gorgeous restaurant with high rafters, wooden tables and chairs and plenty of space.  Most impressive are the views of the sea through the huge glass windows that surround the diners.

Once I had taken in the view, I discovered that our group was big enough that there was a table for nephews and nieces with their partners and a table for my parents and siblings and aunt.  I was out of my seat catching up with everyone when the starters came out.  Everyone shared plates of octopus; prosciutto with cheese and sourdough bread; and croquettes.  I arrived back at my seat in time to grab a potato, corn, miso, cheese and chives croquette with a creamy sauce.  It was really crispy and delicious but my attention was on more catching up.

Then the mains arrived.  I had ordered the one vegetarian main, which also seemed to gluten free and vegan.  I took a hurried photo of the menu but it was too blurred to read and it was not updated on the website.  The sprouting cauliflower was the feature with roasted parsnip, served on a bed of freekah, creamy sauce and salsa verde, topped with thin discs of apple and what I think were parsnip crisps.  Everything was cooked beautifully, the flavours were superb and it was an absolute joy.
 

 

Many in my family had the fish and chips which was huge and filling.  Susie had the grilled gluten free fish and chips.  Andy had the prawn linguine.  Dave was late and his fish and chips were ordered before he arrived.  Fran enjoyed her meal and mocktail but mentioned that it was a shame that the mains had no vegetables or salad.  Side dishes had to be ordered separately.  This is not a cheap place to eat.  My main cost $38 and was one of the cheaper mains.  But at least I felt good about all the vegies in my dish.  I would have also liked to have tried the tomatoes with sesame cream and nori or the broccoli with miso and saltbush.  

At my mum's end of the table was a bottle of champagne.  Not all of the family were able to be there.  My sister in Dublin had thoughtfully arranged for the restaurant to surprise mum with the bottle when she arrived.

My meal wasn't too filling so I had a hot chocolate afterwards.  The service was great and the most memorable moment was the waiter impressing us with memorising the 8 or 9 different drinks: the skinny latte, the soy latte, the regular latte, the cappucino, the flat white and on and on.  My hot chocolate wasn't hot enough for my liking but it was wonderfully rich with lots of cocoa flavour.   

I checked back on my blog and found that my last mention of Barwon Heads was April 2012 (in the same month that I went to Monsalvat which I also visited last weekend!).   I have fond memories of fun with the family on the beach building sandcastles and swimming by the 1927 timber bridge across the estuary of the Barwon River.  Over almost 100 years the bridge has seen many changes including consultations and protests in the decade after SeaChange when the state government considered a new bridge, mirroring some of the storylines of the tv show that revolved around closing the bridge.  I am glad they upgraded the bridge and were able to maintain the historical integrity and spectacle.

It was such a lovely time at the restaurant that we were all a little reluctant to leave the blue skies and blue waters of the seaside town.  I had time to take photos as I took off my sandals and paddled through thw water's edge on the way back to the car.  Blogging works so much better when I am not socialising and can focus on photos.  Hence there are more photos of then food.  But food is only ever part of the story.  Although I don't have too much to say about the meal, I would definitely be back for more, even without the magnificent surroundings..

 
At the Heads
1A Jetty Road, Barwon Heads, VIC 3227
Open: Mon-Sun 12pm-late
https://attheheads.com.au/