Powdered of Course

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I really wish I had the exact quote- but the general gist is...

"Scrambled eggs.... just powdered of course". 

Of course the scrambled eggs are made from powder. They're made from chickpea flour (or gram or besan flour). The best type of powder for making scrambled eggs. 

The actual comment was due to the rationing - eggs were rationed during WW2 (along with pretty much everything else) and so scrambled eggs would of been made with some sort of weird chemically manufactured powdered stuff. I like the sound of chickpea flour better- don't you? Plus- chickpea flour is cheaper. Perfect for a student (12 days till I go!!) 

So... here is eggs for breakfast... but "powdered of course.". 

Scrambled "Eggs"

Serves 1

This recipe has evolved from several that I have found over the years, but mainly this one, that I then adapted to suit me better. 

• 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup plant milk (I would use the 1/4 cup twice- it saves on the washing up)
• 1 Tablespoon of Nutritional Yeast
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/8 teaspoon of turmeric (optional- but it makes it prettier)

• Whisk all the ingredients together in a jug which is easy to pour from (because I have never got mixture all over the counter and the hob because I tried to pour it out of a bowl)
• Heat some oil in a frying pan and pour the mixture in
• Now- I haven't really got the hang of this bit. I have found that the best way to make scrambles is to make it like your making an omelet and then break it up into 'scrambles'. But I have found that even if you are going to try and 'scramble' it properly- it's better to leave it alone until it is at least partially set. Because there is considerably less risk of food poisoning- it doesn't matter if it's totally cooked or not- although the chickpea flour tastes bitter if it isn't cooked through (because I've never done that either!) Either way you decided to cook your scrambles- you possibly want it a little less cooked than if you were making an omelet (which you can also do with this mixture). 
• Serve in a bowl or on toast. Or any other way you want to eat your scrambles. It's not that bad cold as part of a packed lunch. Especially with some cold vegan sausages and red sauce. 

Chalet School Porridge

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This is history guys. 

This is possibly the first and last time that I am going to call the stuff made with milk and oats into a delicious breakfast 'porridge'. It's oatmeal. Because quite simply- oatmeal is easier to spell. I mean seriously- porridge? 

Oatmeal's much easier. 

Despite this- in the Chalet School books- it's called porridge. Why- when they so often go with European customs- the 24 hour clock- the name of the dining room (Speisesaal)- and meals (Mitagessen- Abendessen). So WHY did they have to go with the hard word 'porridge'. I don't know what the German is for oatmeal- but it can't be harder than the English to spell... right? 

In the books- the porridge often appears in the morning (often along side the rolls) as 'hot bowls of porridge topped with butter and honey'. Now- I am all for a hot bowl of oats for breakfast.... I am not all about the honey and butter. I mean- a) I never use butter. b) I don't generally sweeten my oatmeal in that way. c)neither are MoFo friendly- so I'm just going to have to come up with something similar; but better - right? I mean- butter? On oatmeal? Weird. 

I did try replacing the butter (with the much nicer) coconut oil. But it just didn't feel right. I meal- this is the Chalet School. Even the European food is considered 'different' and practically exotic- there definitely wouldn't of had coconut oil. Not even for a non culinary use. Especially with rationing during 'The War Years'. So coconut oil was a no. To.... not in keeping with the fact that for the general population- coconut oil is barely used in 2015- never mind the first half of the twentieth century. 

So we'll move on and focus on replacing the honey. I could use maple syrup (which I do occasionally use to sweeten oatmeal). But.... although it does feature in one of the books when Joey has some that has been sent from Canada.... it was not right either. And my favorite books are when they are in Austria- so several years before Canada appears in the books. I could have used any liquid sweetener- but I just felt that the oatmeal (sorry- porridge) would become too sweet. Then I remembered Matron's Jam. I can't remember which Matron- but one of them makes good jam. And I can cope with jam on oatmeal. 

If it's very nice jam. Not technically jam but fruit spread... but there was a war going on. Sugar rationing and all that.... And just plain a bit nicer then traditional jam. 

Which means that we are back to replacing the butter. And here I chose the easy road. I just used a 'pat' of a vegan spread. It doesn't really have any amazing health benefits. It doesn't even taste that grate. But... It looks pretty. I'm serious. I didn't want to eat it because it looked so pretty as it melted and the light reflected on it. And it's a beautiful golden yellow color when melted. 

And you eat with your eye's first right? 

Porridge

(serves 1) 

• 1/3 of a cup of oats
• 1 cup of milk (you're favorite kind- almond is my go-to, but I have found that oat is best when heating)
• pinch of a mixed spice blend (like apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice) - or a pinch each of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. 
• 1 teaspoon of vegan spread (I used a sunflower spread)
• 1 tablespoon of jam (or fruit spread). If you have something amazing and homemade- even better!!!

• Mix together the oats, milk and spice in a small pan and place on a low heat. 
• Stirring constantly- heat until it has thickened nicely. Take your time over a low heat until it has thickened up nicely. If it takes a long time- yipee. If it takes longer than 10 minutes- be patient. It'll be worth it. You want it really thick. 
• Transfer to a bowl and top with the vegan spread (if you can break it up into little bits across the top of the porridge- yeah!) and the jam (this is best left in one 'dollop' in the middle.) Leave it a few minutes before you dig in so the spread can melt and go all pretty. And try not to have too much of the vegan spread all in one go- cause it really doesn't taste all that grate. 

Hello MoFo 2015

So last year Vegan MoFo almost killed me. That - the fact that my computer finally died and so I lost most of the pictures that I needed- and the fact that I wasn't well. 

But it was very stressful. 

But so much fun. 

So much fun that I decided to sign up this year as well. And guess what? It's not even the end of the first day- I haven't even written my first post yet- and already it's stressful. Think we couldn't use the water without boiling it and so know I am 4 weeks behind because I wasn't allowed to do any cooking stressful. The best laid plan's of mice and men.... 

So I don't have much time to write (did I mention I was moving out and starting uni halfway through this?) nor do I have much time for editing photos (read none). And I'm burning oat milk on the stove. 

Now I have saved the oat milk- I'll begin. (Are you sitting comfortably?) 

So- Vegan MoFo is when bloggers (and Instagramers and Twitteres and Facebookers) all over the world spend one month (September) blogging all that they can in one month about vegan food. It's intense. 

This month- due to more bloggers using sites such as Instagram, they've changed it up a bit. MoFo is happening across all platforms- and instead of each blogger choosing their theme for the month- there is a universal theme for each day- so each participant is on the same page. 

And although I'm not vegan - I eat a lot of vegan food and I am going to have a lot of fun participating (when it's not stressful). So everything on this blog is going to be vegan for the next month.... (my parent's would say that there isn't much of a change...) 

So today's prompt is "Rise and Shine! It's MoFo time! Tell us about your breakfast!" 

Which should be simple enough - right? But is this my breakfast today.... or my usual breakfast. I mean... do I even have a usual breakfast. I mean - the only answer I can give to that one is that it's basically anything but toast.

So I decided to create my own 'spin' on the theme (that's totally allowed- right?) and based it upon .... Breakfast in the Chalet School books. As I said earlier today... I'm obsessed.

So.... The place to start with the Chalet School in terms of breakfast? Hot milk or hot milky coffee. It's something that seems to appear in practically all meals in the series, weather you like it or not.  Including breakfast. So it seems like a good place to start.

I've found that oat milk seems to heat up the best- and so if I have a choice- that's what I'll use for hot milk. It also works with almond and soy milk- but if I have a choice that's what I use (and so that's why Mom's not happy with me because I have a carton of oat and one of almond open at the moment!)

Another thing is that I don't like coffee. Kind of. I like the taste of coffee- but it's always to strong for me now- no matter how week it's made. So I cheated. Instead of making milky coffee- I made coffee flavored hot milk. I know it's not the best way to do things- but.... It tasted nice.

Okay - it must be a really big mug!! 

Hot Milk
Serves 1

• 1 cup of milk (preferably oat for me- but use your favorite!) 
• Optional: 1/4 of a teaspoon of coffee flavoring (this may need to be adjusted depending on how strong your flavouring is- maybe start with 1/8 of a teaspoon and increase slowly if you think yours is a strong flavoring)

• In a small pan (or the microwave) heat the milk until it is bubbling but not boiling. 
• Transfer to your favorite mug (it should be one that's nice to cradle in a way that gently warms your hands and makes you feel all cosy inside- even if it's summer!) 
• I used a mini milk frother because I've found that if I use it - it stops the milk from developing a skin while I drink it. It's only £1, very small and I've found it very useful. Even more so if it wasn't kept on a high shelf that I couldn't reach!!!! 
• If you're going to add the coffee flavoring- add this before you whisk it. If you don't have a milk frother use a normal whisk to make sure that your flavouring is mixed in evenly. 
• Take the time to enjoy your drink. It's worth it. 

The Chalet School

So this summer I have been obsessed with a series of books called the Chalet School books by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. 

I've been borrowing the books from the library (and have bought one of my own!!) and they are VERY addictive. At least if you are me. And the people all over the internet who are also obsessed. 

They're a kind of school story. A bit like St Claire's and Malory Towers- except a bit more 'grown up'. Not necessarily because they contain things people know would associate with being a bit more 'grown up',  but they can be a bit more 'life like'. When people get ill.... they don't always get better. 

The book starts of being set in Austria- on the Tirol. It's an English school (originally) but Madge (the headmistress) chose to start the school there due to the fact that, as well as being cheaper, she thought the climate and atmosphere would do her younger sister, Joey, some good. For a time the school moves to the Chanel Islands, then to Wales, and finally to Switzerland. At some point (I REALLY want to read about when if anybody can tell me which book it is) the school becomes trilingual. Having a day each for French, German and English. Sunday is reserved for 'whichever tongue wanted' - which can mean Italian, some Scandinavian languages, Belsornian, Russian, Spanish.... Which is basically... write up my street. A trilingual school? Why couldn't I go? 

An abnormal number of adventures happen in the stories- I guess if there weren't then the books wouldn't have been half as interesting. But expect a lot of fun (and not so fun) adventures. 

Also -this is possibly the only school I know were skiing and tobogganing (coasting) are positively on the curriculum. You may do either- but you must do one! 

The books were written between 1925 and 1970- and you could definitely say that they are 'of there time' in places. Towards the end of the series they may even of been bordering on slightly old fashioned- I don't know. I wasn't around then.

This enormous time span is quite fun- you get to see the children of old girls come and have adventures at the school themselves. Joey has triplets. And Len, Con and Margot all have their fair share of adventures. Madge's girls all come as well. It's... it has a strange sort of appealing atmosphere- were the girls out of hours will quite often call the mistresses "aunt" because as well as being their history teacher- they are also their Godmother. 

Also - interestingly compared to the Malory Towers and St Clare's I read when I was younger - Brent-Dyer chose to 'keep the books real' by implementing what was happening at the time into the books. This means that when war came for her readers- war came to Joey, Madge and the Robin (Joey's adopted sister). This may be because- as the school was set in Austria- Brent-Dyer, unlike Blyton, would have struggled to ignore it. After Austria became a Nazi country - it would not have been in keeping with the 'war spirit' to read about a school happily enjoying life in 'enemy territory'.

This meant that the school had to move. Of course (and in keeping with the many drama's and catastrophes that happened over the course of the Chalet School) this could not be done quietly. Which make's 'The Chalet School in Exile' possibly the least favorite of the titles that I've read. Not because it's not the best. In terms of quality- I'd definitely rank it higher than some of the later titles- but because it's slightly too..... real. It's..... a bit like 'The Sound of Music'. But without the singing to make it alright. There are many not so pleasant run in's with Nazi soldiers. People are threatened. People go missing. People are put into Concentration Camps. People die. A group has to flee the country in secret and smuggle themselves across the border. The school is forced to close- it looses many students because the government won't let them go to a English run school- and more because parent's don't feel it's safe for their children to remain there. Which it isn't.

When the school re-opens in Guernsey they still aren't safe from Nazi spies. But when a pupil is found out to be a German sent to retrieve information- the school's first thought is 'the poor thing'. They don't blame her- that is one thing that everyone is very clear on. In the books I've read that take place in 'the War years' - the school and it's pupils make a big thing of making sure that everyone appreciates that the German's aren't the enemy. The Austrians aren't the enemy. It's the Nazi's who are the enemy. They pray for their friends who are not with them - both those who are native German's and Austrians who are now under the Nazi regime, and those who have died because of it.

And when the war's over- there is a great effort to meet up with old friends. In some cases it just isn't possible. But the members of the Chalet School seem to have a great skill for finding each other again, apparently the tight knit community of the Chalet School lasts well into adulthood.

There are over 50 Chalet School titles... but I definitely prefer the earlier one's than the later. I don't know... I still love the later ones, but the earlier ones are the ones that I prefer. Maybe it's just because I prefer the setting- or that it's because as a smaller school at that time- they are a more tight knit community. 

One thing I do like about the books though- is that you get to see what the Chalet School made the girls into- you get to see the girls when they are grown up, and have careers and families. Sometimes thais get's a bit annoying (you are reading a school story- sometime it would be good if there were a bit more of the actual exploits of the school girls in there) but as a general rule- it's nice. 

There are still plenty of school girl tricks, plenty of prefects and head girls and school rivalries (although not so many as they are often quite a way away from the nearest school), plenty of shows, plenty of exams. There are fines for speaking the wrong language, fines for slang (and they are big on not using slang) and fines for getting splashes on the table cloth. And if you don't like traditional folk dancing..... what's wrong with you? 

The other thing that is big in the Chalet School is the Girlguiding movement. There are several Guide units, and Rangers and Brownies as well. Which basically just makes the books the best ever to me. Because Guides makes everything the best. Almost all the girls are involved in one way or another- and the Guiding is quite deeply ingrained in school life... it's a big part of who a lot of the girls are- and sometimes whole weekends are reserved for Guiding activities- when visitors come they are more likely to show off what they have learnt in Guides as opposed to what they have learnt in lessons, and they actually use a lot of what they learnt in Guides and Brownies- especially first aid and tracking symbols. 

Overall- I really like these books, and I could probably go on all day about how great they are- but I have other things to write and you have other things to read. So I'll stop know- but if you ever have a chance to read one- they're really cool.