The 100th Post and 21!

So this post was originally supposed to be published in April, but it's only being posted today, on Sunday 12th June, which also happens to be 5 days after my 21st birthday.  So Happy Birthday to me for yesterday!  At the time of starting writing this post (6th June), I don't know what it will contain, so let's start with some personal highlights of blogging over the past 2 years:

• My Adventures in the USA series (July-September 2015): This set of posts followed my adventures with my family in both Washington DC and Florida, and listed my top 5 places to visit in Washington DC as well as in each of the Disney World parks and the Universal Orlando parks in Florida, and also featured some recipes inspired by the trip.
• My Back to the 80s posts 1 and 2 (March 2016): In my excitement over BUSOM's main show, Back to the 80s, I posted little diary entries from my view as the show's producer in the days leading up to the show, as well as the daily countdown photos and other promotional things.
• My interview with Australian blogger, Kara Ready (unfortunately not in person), in which she talked about her passion for media and journalism, veganism, travel, and her tips for health and happiness.
• My post about my little trip with my friends from uni to our local Waterstones bookstore for a Harry Potter event.
• The highlights of my short trip to Newcastle in February this year.
• My post about what my friends and I did for Halloween last year.
• My final week of uni before Christmas post.

Favourite photos

Homemade bread rolls in Summer 2014

Berries and overalls in Summer 2014

A banana and date smoothie!

Chocolate Rice Krispie nests at Easter 2015

Fruit haul for snacking around Washington DC

The World War 2 Memorial in Washington DC in July 2015

The wall of 4048 gold stars, each of which represent 100 Americans who died in World War 2

A waterfall at the Roosevelt Memorial Park

The White House!

The Hogwarts Express at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando

Festival of the Lion King at the Animal Kingdom

Making my own tie-dye T-shirt at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa at Disney World

My finished rainbow tie-dye Mickey Mouse T-shirt

Cinderella's Castle at Disney World Florida in July 2015

Fireworks at the Magic Kingdom in July 2015

Vegan Oreo cupcakes in October 2015

Carving pumpkins at uni in October 2015

Paddington on the Harry Potter display at Waterstones in February 2016

Falafel and Mango Chutney from Tea Sutra in Newcastle in February 2016

Activities Ball in April 2016

My birthday party mocktail in May 2016

What's in store in coming weeks

I've got a few ideas buzzing around my head for some upcoming posts, including the following:

• a chocolate "cup" cake recipe - a homemade mix for a cake in a cup that doesn't contain eggs or dairy!
• a chocolate brownie recipe - I think this recipe will be the closest thing to the chocolate brownie recipe that my family traditionally uses and which everyone loves, so I'm dying to try it!
• a possible collaboration
• a post on anxiety
• a few posts on coffee - I want to see sometime which plant-based milks are the best for coffee, ice cream and coffee-based recipes, so I may have another collaboration for this.
• my Sri Lanka adventure series - I plan to journal my family trip to Sri Lanka in August, and then write a few posts with my favourite places to visit and a few curry recipes!

Asparagus with Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce and Toast

For my birthday tea, we had asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and toast for starters, but unfortunately, the shop-bought Hollandaise sauce was non-vegan (contained egg yolk and possibly also butter), so I decided to find an easy recipe for vegan-friendly Hollandaise sauce in case I wanted to use it with asparagus again in the future.  I found this recipe and the recipe for the cashew butter used to make it on the Whole Foods Market website!

Ingredients (makes about 1 cup of sauce)

3/4 cup cashew butter (see recipe below)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 a teaspoon ground turmeric
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a few bunches of asparagus
2 cups raw cashew nuts (will make 1 cup of cashew butter)

Instructions

1. To make cashew butter, place cashew nuts in a food processor and process for 2 minutes at a time.  Doing this at intervals will prevent the food processor from overheating.  Scrape down the sides of the processor when required until the cashew nuts break down completely and become a completely smooth butter - before this, the mixture will go through a dry paste, crumbly mixture and large ball stage.
2. Combine cashew butter, mustard, lemon zest and juice, garlic powder, turmeric, cayenne pepper and 1/2 a cup of warm water in a blender for about one minute or until smooth.
3. Add more warm water as needed to reach the desired consistency.  Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
4. Rinse stalks of asparagus in water.  For larger stalks, bend the spear until it snaps and throw the harder end away.
5. Boil in water for 3-5 minutes or steam for 4-5 minutes.
6. Serve asparagus and Hollandaise sauce with slices of toast.

My 21st birthday cake!

Non-Vegan Cheesecake with Grated Chocolate

Asparagus and Radish Salad with Green Chilli

So I'm back!!!  After nearly two months of no new posts, I think I'm just about ready to start writing again and I think I have a few ideas in store, with maybe even a couple of collaborations but nothing's been organised yet.  In the next couple of weeks, I'll be publishing my 100th post (which you can still send asks to @rainbowsunshine67 on Tumblr for, both anonymously and non-anonymously), so look out for that!

So I've actually been up to a lot in the past couple of months, so let's have a little catch-up:

On Friday 15th April, it was the Activities Ball on Friday 15th April.  While the ball had been at the Cedar Court Hotel near the M606 last year, we returned this year to the Bradford Hotel where the ball was when I was in 1st year, and for the first time in years, the Activities Ball took place separately to the Athletics Union Colours Ball (which was in March).  I ended up wearing the same F&F Limited Edition purple satin dress that I wore for the ball two years ago, but one of my friends commented when I told her it was the same dress that I'd "grown and matured into the dress" since 1st year.  I don't really understand what she meant but she said it was a compliment.  I wore it with my gold flower necklace and black bow flat shoes, both from Marks and Spencer.

I received an individual colours award for my services as exec member of both BUSOM (in 2nd year) and RamAir (in 3rd year) after my wonderful friends from BUSOM nominated me.  This year has been a big year for awards in BUSOM as a total of 5 of us received individual awards, we achieved gold status in the society quality mark (SQM) scheme, and we were also shortlisted for the Event of the Year award for Back to the 80s, narrowly missing out to Pak Soc and the Hindu Society's collaboration on the Rang event.




I chose the vegetarian option for the meal, but I don't know how much difference there was between the vegetarian option and the vegan option (I also don't know of any vegans who were at the ball).  The main difference between the vegetarian option and the normal option was that everyone else had chicken with their vegetables instead of vegetable tarts for main course, and the tomato soup starter was probably the same for everyone (except for a friend who was allergic to the cornstarch in the soup).  The raspberry panna cotta wasn't the best but it was alright and if it wasn't already vegan-friendly, it could easily be made so.

A bag of sweets!

The table centrepiece

Starter: Tomato Soup

Vegetarian Mains: Vegetable tart with vegetables

Dessert: Raspberry Pannacotta

On Tuesday 26th April, I completed the website for my final project (which can currently be viewed at http://brassloft.liam.bradweb.co.uk/), had my presentation, and completed my final 4000 word essay and my degree on Monday 9th May.  I'll have to wait for a few more weeks to receive my final results, but I'm still just about on track for a 2:1.  I'm due to graduate on Wednesday 13th July!

Thursday 28th April was BUSOM's summer concert, I Can Sing A Rainbow, where we sang lots of songs about colours.  I sang Colours of the Wind from Pocahontas as a solo, and also had a solo line in Rainbow Connection from the Muppets.  Other songs included I've Got A Golden Ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Somewhere That's Green from Little Shop of Horrors, Red and Black from Les Miserables, and Joseph's Coat from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  You can read Phil Lickley's review on the concert here. The photos below are courtesy of Bradford Student Productions.




During my final week at university (15th-20th May), I took part in RamAir's 24 Hour Show where I both studio managed other shows and hosted the final two episodes of my own show, Breaking Walls and Closing Cupboards - although the final episode ended up under the name of Fixing The Wall and Opening The Cupboards.  I also took part in the return of Grumpy Young Farts and the final episode of Anything Goes with Emma.






I had my 21st birthday party 3 weeks early so I could celebrate with my uni friends before they all went home.  We used the uni bars' karaoke system for entertainment (I sang Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall, Call Me by Blondie, Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) by Atomic Kitten, and Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves), and played the chocolate game, pass the parcel (including Truth or Dare) and Never Have I Ever for party games.  I love my friends from BUSOM and I think they made this an amazing birthday party for me.  Hopefully, I'll be publishing my 100th post by my 21st birthday (on 7th June)!

My birthday mocktail gift from the bars, with pineapple juice, cranberry juice, blueberries and grapes

Playing the chocolate game

Other events from that week included the Student Leader Awards where I received a gold award for my volunteering with RamAir and a silver award for being a student representative, the BUSOM end-of-year BBQ, and Party on the Amp, which I missed most of due to work, but had a good time with my friends for the 2 hours I was there and afterwards when spending more time with BUSOM friends.

Emma and I with our awards, photo courtesy of Philip Lickley

I've also now started working at Gaggia Caffe Shop, where I'm tinkering with a website redesign and answering lots of customer phone calls at the moment, but I might be learning more about the coffee machines themselves in the future so I can understand better to give advice to customers.


And now finally for this week's recipe.  While flicking through the May 2016 edition of Tesco Food Family Living, I noticed that there's a new symbol for about 4 of the dishes - a small green V with a leaf at the right finishing point of the letter.  I looked up what this meant and found that these recipes "use no animal products, including meat, fish, eggs and dairy".  This will definitely make finding vegan-friendly recipes in these magazines as I was previously searching the vegetarian recipes for milk or eggs and thinking of how I could adapt these recipes.  The first marked vegan-friendly recipe from Tesco that I'm going to share here is going to be Asparagus and radish salad with green chilli:

Ingredients (serves 4)

100g (3 1/2 oz) fine green beans, trimmed
1 x 250g bunch of asparagus, shaved into long strips using a vegetable peeler
2 spring onions, sliced
100g  (3 1/2 oz) radishes, finely sliced
a small handful each of fresh dill and mint, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

For the dressing:
5cm (2 inches) piece fresh ginger, finely grated
1 garlic clove, finely grated
1 green chilli, seeded and finely diced
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Instructions

1. Cook the green beans in a pan of salted, boiling water for 3 minutes, or until tender.  Drain, run under a cold tap and drain again.  Arrange on a serving platter with the asparagus, spring onions, radishes and herbs.
2. To make the dressing, combine the ginger, garlic and chilli in a small bowl.  Add the lime juice and sesame oil.  Season with a pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar, and mix well.
3. Scatter the hazelnuts over the salad and spoon over the dressing.