Yes, that’s Punky up there wanting to fit inside the cat carrier with his brother. They LOVE the cat carrier and if we don’t put it back up on the high shelf, both cats insist on using it as a bed. Except they both can’t fit in it, so this is as good as it gets for one of them.

My parents have Easter Sunday lunch at their house every year. Yesterday was Greek Orthodox Easter and that is the day my parents celebrate. My sister and I take along a dish and this year we did our usual planning of who was to take what, then changed our minds a few times then ended up making the first thing we’d offered!

My sister is now officially in charge of all the roasted vegetables: sweet potato, potato and pumpkin:

I made a stromboli and filled it with Tofurky pepperoni, Cheezly and sundried tomatoes. Being Easter Sunday, my sister named it Holy Stromboli. We agreed that if I make it for Christmas lunch, it must then be called Holly Strombolly. Here’s one of the unholiest stromboliest pictures you’ll see. There was just no making this look pretty!

We also threw in some falafel and a handful of Borg’s Vegetarian pastry triangles (which are vegan).

My sister also made a portobella mushroom dish from the Oh She Glows cookbook and my mum also made marinated mushrooms. Clearly we didn’t communicate about mushrooms well enough! Here’s my plate. You may notice a lack of green. Halfway through our meals, my mum realised we’d forgotten to assemble the salad. The greens were still sitting in the colander over the sink:

Mum also took charge of cooking for the non-vegans. She made two non-vegan desserts but made me a special vegan version of her dessert called ‘saraili’. That’s how we pronounce it (“sah-rah-i-LI”). It is a filo pastry sweet, similar to baklava, that Turkish people make too. It’s your basic nuts-in-filo recipe with syrup poured over once cooked. I’ll be posting a recipe for this soon. I haven’t eaten saraili in ages so this was a nice surprise:

We had an interesting table discussion about how these days we’re finding we can’t eat as much as we used to. In previous years we would eat what was on the plate, then go back for seconds and a bazillion desserts would be later. Family celebrations for us always involved eating a heap of food, then eating more even if you weren’t hungry (especially dessert)! My mum, sister and I can’t do that anymore as we just feel pretty sick straight away. We do struggle a little with pulling back on the catering though. Even if it’s a small gathering we tend to prepare too much food!

Last week was a fairly quiet-ish one. Here’s the Library at the Dock. Upstairs is an area where kids can play games (board games and electronic). We’ve attended classes here (often free) and there’s also the Makerspace where you can use the 3D printer:

We saw two live shows by kids comedian Matty Grey. Arthur and DeeW had a great time, especially when Arthur was selected to shoot Husband with a nerf gun. Arthur was instructed (by the performers, not me) to shoot Daddy in the testicles. Of course Arthur was very happy to do as he was told! The shows were held at the Northcote Town Hall:

After the show, Arthur and I walked around a bit and headed down to Fitzroy:

This scene cracked me up when I was waiting for a tram and looked above my head. I haven’t seen this in ages– sticking your tv antenna out the window to get a good signal! That, or being the youngest child in the extended family and being made to stand in awkward positions holding the antenna so your cousins get to watch Wonder Woman…

We saw these free persimmons. I took one and still haven’t eaten it:

The trip to Fitzroy was so that I could pick up my new pair of vegan socks (I didn’t buy them in Fitzroy, just went to pick them up from the person that ordered them online from the US):

Articles and Stuff:

– US Federal Report says vegan diet is best for the planet: “A federal panel that helps set federal dietary guidelines is recommending Americans eat less meat because it’s better for the environment, sparking outrage from industry groups representing the nation’s purveyors of beef, pork and poultry.”

– Top 5 misconceptions about food: a doctor’s daily experience

– Where disadvantage and industrial decline meet: youth unemployment in Melbourne’s north

I’ll wrap it up here for this past week in review. Time is just slipping away too fast lately, though I suppose that’s a good thing when you’re waiting for the next season of Doctor Who!