Christmas wines, vegan sausages and a baby

Yesterday morning I woke up to the doorbell and a Christmas present from Korea. Apart from this little Irish selection of treats there was lots of cheese, ham, salmon and two bottles of wine in the parcel. Not bad to be a successful writer with important company contacts all around the world.

Or maybe that was someone else at this address. Hmm, Happy Christmas.

I spent Saturday up town. On the way there I stopped at the local vegan cafe Teatime Collective to try the 'steak and cheese' ciabatta. The steak tofu was tasty and the cheese wasn't bad either, it just felt like something was missing. It was a little bit dry. I preferred the ciabatta with 'steak', gherkins and mustard mayo I had last time. I imagine that a combination of them both would be really nice.

Jon had a daily special of mash with mustard, sausages and gravy. Good flavours too. And yes, we sat outside. Totally amazing three days before Christmas.

I also received the long awaited news that one of my good old friends from Sweden, former house mate, teenage smoking partner and riot companion gave birth this weekend and I'm over the moon. Actually that happy I couldn't hold back the tears. I blame the maternal bugs floating around in my brain.

In less than four weeks this over-sensitiveness will be over however and I can't wait. In fact, you're welcome out now baby. Deal?

My Christmas menu and the tastiest tofu in town

Christmas is getting closer and a few weeks back I had some vague idea about becoming more active on the blog. People have asked me for green Christmas recipes and this would have been a great time to share some ideas.

Unfortunately I am much too tired to put my mind to anything but extremely simple and monotonous food, let alone writing about it. I don't want to just pick any recipes for the sake of it but try them out first and then share them. If they're easy and tasty, they're suitable for my blog, and if not, I simply wouldn't share them.

However, I can tell you what I'm personally going to do this year for Christmas (same as last year) in case I don't get a final energy boost from heaven and urge to try out new stuff.

Remember the Lentils Burgers with Oregano and Cheddar I posted back in October? Last year I made them in meatball-form instead of burgers and that was a success. When you make them a little smaller they get more compressed with flavour so the only thing to keep in mind is to not add too much chili.

Last year's lentil balls in the making

I'm also considering making these Kidney Bean and Walnut Burgers, perhaps also ball-shaped. I'm not sure about it. Just because I'm Swedish and see meatballs as an essential part of the Christmas menu it doesn't mean that the entire plate has to consist of balls so I don't know.

Baking-wise I'm going to make Swedish Gingerbread Biscuits, if my spice arrives on time that is. I've been looking around for dried carnations in Manchester but couldn't find them anywhere. In Holland & Barrett they looked at me as if I was from outer space when asking about it and I realised that I better just ask my mum to send some over from Sweden. She went to the nearest shop in the village and sent them the day after so hopefully they'll be here soon.

Apart from all that I'll be having the usual; sprouts, other veg, beetroots, potatoes, cheese, eggs, and crispbreads. It's my first Christmas in UK so I'm a little bit excited but also a little bit sad thinking about my family (and new nephew!) on the other side of the North Sea. But there is just no chance that I'll board a plane with less than a month until the baby is due.

Out for a walk in wintery Sweden, 2012

Our house, 2011

Other than that not much is going on in life except from sore hips, baby baking, swimming and the occasional cafe visit.

Yesterday I went back to Teatime Collective for a catch-up with a friend and to check out their expanded seating area. The converted container fits around 15 more people and was warm and cosy. Perhaps a little too warm for a woman already on the edge of boiling from various hormones, but that's a different story.

I had a really tasty Ciabatta with 'Steak', Mustard Mayo, Gherkins and Salad (£3), all completely vegan of course. The 'steak' consisted of the tastiest tofu I've ever eaten. Along with gherkins and the hint of mustard it was simply brilliant. Next time I have to try their vegan steak and cheese sandwich.

Toasted ciabatta with vegan steak, mustard mayo, gherkins and salad

Here's their full menu.

Pastas, swimming and a Lego wedding

"Where there is love there is life."

Last week I made a journey down south to spend a week with Jon's family, and what better family food than pasta? I had it every day except from one. Pasta as well as lots of cakes and chocolate. After all, Christmas is approaching.

One day I cooked carbonara for the four of us.

A day later Jon's mum made some sort of nice creamy pasta bake with broccoli, mushrooms and cheese, and dough balls with garlic butter on the side. Hello carb heaven.

Because I wasn't able to do my regular aqua-natal class during the week I thought I'd be brave and attempt a light swim instead. Last time I'd been swimming was three years ago to get fit for a competition, but my shoulder had already started being dodgy by then so I've stayed away from it since. Thankfully, 15 months of no exercising involving my shoulder whatsoever seem to have been exactly the medicine I needed, as swimming actually works again. A huge, huge relief.

Then finally the weekend arrived and it was time for Jon's brother to get married, which meant more cakes and pasta on the menu.

The Lego wedding cake.

More Lego at the evening reception. Apparently this one is the future me.

And my charming table partner playing with... Lego.

I had one of the best lasagnas ever consisting of green lentils, pasta and cheese. Didn't really get why it was served with potatoes on the side though. The weird part of British food.

Apart from getting sick in the evening, the day was purely wonderful; smiles and love all around and a really good ending to a lovely week.

This week I've been extremely tired and have tried to catch up on rest and sleep. Only five weeks left until the lie-ins become part of a past era. Reality is rapidly becoming real. Sleep tight.

One photo every meal and a birthday

Last week wasn't great to be honest. I hardly slept at all during the nights and tried my best to catch up during the days, but mainly felt frustrated for not fulfilling any of my daytime plans. The lack of sleep also resulted in a cold getting worse and extreme moodiness. For instance I was in parents' class and on the edge of tears because the midwife offered me biscuits. Don't ask me why, but that's my sleep-deprived brain in combination with hormones. Watching the news didn't improve matters much, I ended up wanting to get a machine gun and go postal on everything and everyone. Luckily, I held back on that one.

Then came Friday and completely turned the atmosphere around. Not only did I wake up more rested, but a certain birthday boy got back from a business trip and we had decided to do something nice. I woke up just before midday but stayed in bed for another hour to listen to the radio, then I made breakfast.

Fruit, yoghurt, egg and coffee. The big yellow chunks might look like cheese but they're fresh pineapple, I promise. I'm in a pineapple phase at the moment.

In the afternoon it was time to go up town - to the infamous Christmas market at Albert Square - before it got too crowded and alcoholic. I wanted to stop for pancakes on the way but our desired pancake place was shut so we went straight to the market and I had a warm macaroon instead.

Almost like pancakes, ehh?

The annual birthday pose.

As the dark made its entrance and we had had enough of the market, we went to Tampopo; a cosy little Thai place just next to Albert Square.

I had spring rolls and made a beautiful mess.

And pad thai with tofu. Delicious, but it was that filling I actually only managed half of it. Though pretty soon after we were back home I got hungry again. Stupid metabolism.

Good thing I had brought some leftovers with me.

But that wasn't enough either so before bedtime I needed some less glamorous olives, crackers and cranberry juice. A nice end to a really lovely day.

A trip to food heaven

Sometimes you order food and get a pure piece of art, something so perfect you're afraid of putting your teeth into it. Other times you get something so awful-looking that you're afraid for entirely different reasons. Neither of those are the case with Home Sweet Home - my favourite food place in Manchester.

Needless to say, I've been there many times and have tried pretty much everything from their vegetarian selection, and every time the dishes have been screaming out "eat me!". It's just really inviting food and as you get around to actually eat it it's like a dream, in terms of flavour as well as texture. Exactly how it should be.

On this occasion I ordered a Chiabatta with smoked cheese, caramelised onions, sun dried tomato and avocado (£7.95) (if I remember right... It's no longer on the menu so when I did my regular check-back online I couldn't find it.) It also contained aioli but as I'm pregnant I couldn't eat that, but the waitress was so keen and did everything in her power to get me a different sauce. In the end the chef even came out to have a discussion about what I could eat and not. Highly impressive service.

The dish also came with chips, and not even I can resist these chips, they're just so... potatoey and tasty. It wasn't the best meal I've ever had at Home Sweet Home but it'd still score near a nine. That should tell you something about the standard.

Chiabatta with Smoked Cheese, Caramelised Onions, Sun dried Tomatoes and Avocado

Jon was hungry so he ordered Loaded Nachos (£6.00) for a starter. Let me tell you, they're not called loaded for nothing. It's basically nachos with melted cheese, salsa, chipotle sour cream, guacamole, jalapenos and pico de gallo, and a lot of it.

In my book they'd pass well enough as a main dish, although one can discuss the nutritional content. But then, you probably wouldn't go to this southern American-style food heaven in the heart of Northern Quarter to eat nutritionally. This was cheesy, spicy and purely delicious and that's the point.

A little word of warning though; make sure you have enough napkins on the table as with most brilliant food, it tends to get pretty messy.

Loaded Nachos

As always when we go there, Jon ordered Pulled Pork Pile Up (£9.50) which contains slow cooked pork on sweet potato fries covered in BBQ sauce, jalapenos, salad and apple slaw as a main. Although he thinks the menu is a little bit boring for meat eaters, he thoroughly enjoys this dish.

Pulled Pork Pile Up

As a vegetarian however, you will not be let down by the selection. A nice surprise is that they've added Jalapeno Mac n Cheese to the menu and I was thrilled to see that they had modified their Veggie Burger to a bean and veggie patty instead of the mushroom it was before. This will most definitely be on my plate next time.

So to round this up simple and concise; if you haven't been to Home Sweet Home, I promise, you're missing out. Now what are you waiting for? Go.

Vegetarian selection: 8/10
Vegetarian food: 9/10
Non-vegetarian selection: 6/10
Non-vegetarian food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
47/60