My novel, Bluey’s Café, will be FREE to download on Kindle from Oct 8th to 12th!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blueys-Caf%C3%A9-Veronika-Sophia-Robinson-ebook/dp/B00H4CVEBG/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Cover illustration by the talented and gorgeous Sara Simon!
My second novel, set in Australia.
Riding the storm
I’m about to start putting together issue 5 of Starflower Living (a monthly online magazine).
The themes for this issue run alongside those of the New Moon in Scorpio: soul mates, sexuality, transformation, empowerment, letting go, old baggage, psychology, secrets, depth of character, compulsions, deep emotional connections, ancestors, debt, inheritance, jealousy, abandonment.
Health issues: sexual organs, organs of elimination, menstrual cycle, sexual infections.
The due date for articles, artwork, adverts and photos is tomorrow, October 4th. Please email your submission to me at: office (at) starflowerpress (dot) com or veronikarobinson (at) hotmail (dot) com
Before submitting, please be familiar with our publication.
http://www.starflowerpress.com/living/index.shtml
Love, Veronika xxx
Don’t ask me why Saturday night is dessert night in our home, rather than say Wednesday or Monday…because I don’t know.
Last night we had one of my favourite desserts: pear and coconut crumble. It’s quick and easy to make, and tastes gorgeous!
I first wrote about this dessert in my novel, Bluey’s Café:
Home alone on Saturday night, instead of crawling into bed or watching late-night TV, Bluey headed to the kitchen. A small hessian sackful of ripe pears were begging for her to take notice of them. She peeled half a dozen, and sliced their tender juicy flesh in half, laying them in a pan with coconut oil and brown sugar. They began simmering. Their buttery and gritty flesh was perfect for a crumble. Coconut cream swirled around the pears, and a sprinkling of ground ginger dusted the top.
Bluey loved cooking with coconut, and always found it lent an erotic edge to her recipes, not to mention that it reminded her of Cole Hadden, a dashing young English businessmen who had taken her to dinner while in Jamaica several years ago. His kisses tasted like coconut with a hint of cinnamon and Caribbean sunshine. She could never look at coconuts in the same way again.
Serves four to six
4-6 large ripe pears
30g coconut oil (or margarine)
50g coconut sugar (or other unrefined sugar) or maple syrup
Juice of half a lemon
500ml coconut cream
Dusting of ground ginger
Crumble:
85g solid coconut oil (or margarine, but coconut is better)
100g coconut sugar (or other unrefined sugar)
2 cups jumbo oats
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
100g 80% dark chocolate, broken into pieces (ginger chocolate is especially good!)
Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel the pears, cut in half and remove the stalks and seeds. Drizzle with lemon juice to stop browning.
Melt coconut oil (or margarine) in a pan, and add the pear halves. Add the sugar, and allow to caramelise.
After about fifteen minutes, add the coconut cream. Place the contents into a casserole dish. It will look like there’s too much liquid, but don’t worry, as it will be absorbed by the crumble.
Make the crumble. I prefer not to use flour in my crumble as I’m gluten free, but if you’d like it, use about 80g flour, and half the amount of oats. Rub the oil or margarine into the oats. Add the sugar and desiccated coconut. Add the pieces of chocolate and mix well. Place the mixture onto the top of the pears. Bake for 45 minutes.
Serve with soya cream or soya ice cream.
Today I’m collating recipes and photos for Veganuary. Have you heard of it yet?
It’s launching this September, and the campaign is kick-starting in January 2015.
The campaign aims to reduce the suffering of animals by inspiring people to ‘try vegan’ every January… Their goal is: to show the wider world how exciting, delicious, vibrant and varied vegan food really is.
Veronika’s pumpkin and chickpea curry
Clea Grady, Marketing Manager for Veganuary, says “Recipes will be a huge and vital part of this website and of our campaign; we want to showcase every type of dish and cuisine there is.”
Veronika’s vegan dandelion tart
She is interested in hearing from bloggers, chefs, cooks and ‘everyday’ vegans to see if they’d be keen to contribute.
Moussaka ingredients
Clea says “It is absolutely up to the contributor as to how many recipes they provide – all will be accredited back, and we will link back to blogs/websites/online profiles and shout your name from the rooftops on social media.”
If you want to contribute to Veganuary, visit www.veganuary.com
or email: clea (at) veganuary (dot) com
Veronika’s carob and walnut cookies
Veronika’s elderberry and apple crumble
Oh my gosh, it’s suddenly come on all dark, grey, damp and chilly here in the north of England.
My feet are cosied up in thick socks, but the goosebumps on my arms make my thoughts turn to lunch: red lentil soup.
My daughter, Eliza, has started taking a thermos to school so she can bring soup for her lunch. What a treat to have something hot and delicious to look forward to in the middle of the day.
There are more than 40 soup recipes in The Mystic Cookfire, so she’s not likely to get bored!
Illustration by Sara Simon, from The Mystic Cookfire
This week she’s enjoyed red lentil and vegetable, leek and potato, and tomato.
Tonight I’ll make some red pepper soup (her favourite) for tomorrow’s lunch.
Thinking ahead, next week’s lunches will include: Bay and Onion, Black Bean, Potato and Corn Chowder, Italian Peasant Soup, and my favourite: Goan Potato.
Illustration by Sara Simon, from The Mystic Cookfire
What I love about soup is that it’s quick and easy to make; and the house always smells amazing while there’s a pot simmering on the stove. It’s also (ever the crafty mother) a great way of slipping in vegetables and fresh herbs that would otherwise be rejected. Amazing how things just ‘vanish’ when you blend a soup!
Tomato soup
What is your favourite soup?
Wishing you a delicious and rather tasty Autumn! Love, Veronika xx
There’s a black wrought-iron gate at the side of our house. It’s heavy, and when it closes it bangs against a sandstone post. I always know when the postman is coming with the mail.
It’s also the sound of my daughter leaving for school, and coming home from school. It’s the same sound both times, of course, but somehow, in my heart, it feels different in the morning when she’s leaving to catch the bus than in the afternoon when she comes home.
At 4.30pm, the gate swings shut, and my heart opens wide. My daughter is home! Now that the days are drawing in, and there’s a distinct nip in the air, my goal is to be finished work before she comes home, and to have the wood stove lit, and the kettle on.
This is our time. The hour or so before dinner when we get cosy by the wood stove, sip tea, and chat about our day.
Yesterday I told her what the sound of the gate means to me in the afternoon. She replied that she takes her headphones out of her ears before she opens the door so she can hear my voice. Seems this afternoon greeting is important to both of us.
When I wrote The Mystic Cookfire, it was meant to be a small collection of recipes from the camps I hosted when editing The Mother magazine. But like most of my books, it had a life of its own…it grew to more than 424 pages! It’s a heavy recipe book!
It is inevitable with most lengthy documents that the eyes glaze over when proofreading…
I’ve been conscious of errors and omissions, and now that I’m no longer editing The Mother, I feel it’s time to fix up any typos etc., and change the writing to the present tense to make it clear to new readers that that part of my life is over.
The Mystic Cookfire, available from www.starflowerpress.com, Amazon and good bookshops
If you have a copy of The Mystic Cookfire, and have noticed anything amiss (for example, an ingredient mentioned in the method but not in the ingredients list, or something unclear with a direction, PLEASE drop me a line or more to let me know what recipe/page needs amending.
Doing this is one of my Autumn jobs, and if you can help me with that I’d be most grateful. To be clear, the revised edition won’t be containing new information, just an amendment of any errors.
I’m still really proud of this book, and sometimes I just stand back and go ‘wow, there is a lot in this book’. It was great to send my daughter off to uni with a copy, knowing that many of her favourite meals are in there.
The illustrations, by Sara Simon, are fantastic! I love each and every one of them. She’s a very talented lady.
I’m still working on my next two recipe books, which I’ll complete when I’ve got The Mystic up to date.
Blessings, Veronika x
The Blessingway: creating a beautiful blessingway ceremony
Just wanted to share the new cover for The Blessingway, illustrated by Susan Merrick. I really love it!
Equinox blessings, and happy New Moon in Libra.
Issue four of Starflower Living is now available to download.
Cover photo by Sabine Scherer Photography.
http://starflowerpress.com/living/index.shtml
On an Autumnal day in New Zealand in March, 1996, I gave birth to my first child at home in a birth pool by candlelight. Mozart’s music played in the room, and she arrived in this world peacefully. She didn’t cry or fuss, but just looked into our eyes and took in her surroundings.
Half an hour later, it was time to cut the cord (if I knew then what I do now, we’d have had a *lotus birth and not cut the cord). She howled and screamed. It has been said that cutting the cord doesn’t hurt, but she clearly felt ‘something’ as our physical connection was severed.
Seconds after giving birth at home, by candlelight and Mozart, to my daughter Bethany.
For eighteen years, we have shared our lives. At seven this morning, we waved goodbye. That umbilical cord was well and truly cut. And it bloody well hurt me too. She’s on her own now. This part of my mothering journey with her is over.
I’m no longer there to protect her, make sure she eats her greens, warn her off certain boys, and prompt a bedtime to ensure adequate sleep. My job is done.
I look forward to hearing all the stories about university life. But today, I grieve. Today I trust the tears which fall so freely to cleanse old wounds.
I have found it interesting in these past few weeks how differently people respond to pain. Those who have attachment parented their children ~ they understand. They allow me my grief without trying to band aid over it.
And then there are people who are quick to remind me that she’ll be home in ten weeks. It’ll zip by, they say. Maybe. But I doubt it.
If you ever miscarry, someone is bound to say ‘never mind, you can try again’ or ‘it wasn’t meant to be’…rather than just honouring the loss. They mean well, of course, but it doesn’t help.
Yes, Christmas might be just around the corner (at my age it’s always just around the corner!)…but that’s more than 150 meals we won’t be sharing together. More than seventy mornings where I won’t get to see her smile or share a cup of tea.
As a bonded family, every day is a lifetime to savour. So, in some people’s world ten weeks is nothing. This morning, for me, it is a long time away.
I appreciate she’s not going off to war or ill in hospital. She’s a beautiful, healthy young woman with adventures ahead of her ~ but that doesn’t make the cutting of the umbilical cord any less painful.
The eighteen years between giving birth and saying goodbye, now THAT has zipped by.
