My first year in review

Many bloggers summarise their year at the end of December or the start of January. My blogoversary falls on the 18th January so I decided to hold out until now to publish some thoughts about my first year of blogging and a few goals for the year ahead. I really wasn't expecting blogging to become a big part of my life, or to have published 142 posts over this time, but it has been a lot of fun and a wonderful experience.

Some of my blogging and cooking highlights throughout the year have been:

• Participating in Vegan MoFo and publishing 27 posts during October.
• Being tagged by Johanna GGG for a Stylish Blogger Award.
• Being tagged by Mandee, coldandsleepy and Zuckerbaby for the Liebster Award.
• Meeting up with several Melbourne veg bloggers at the Planet VeGMeL picnic.
• Upgrading my very old basic camera to a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V in July 2011.
• Recipe testing for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook.

Monty was very interested in this chilli that rolled off the bench

Favourite recipes from my blog still on rotation are:

• Calzones
• Cheezy roast vegetable pot pies
• Pita bread
• Tofu scramble (this has changed a bit over time so watch out for a new post soon)
• Ethiopian inspired soup
• "Butter Chicken"
• Dal Makhani with Punjabi Cabbage
• Chilli sin carne
• Lemony roasted potatoes (aka. Lemony Snickets)
• Mexe Wedges
• Smoky Alfred
• Broccoli and tofu cannelloni
• Choc-mint & Jaffa balls

On a personal note, 2011 started off on a high and went downhill from there. It was exciting to move back into a much larger home with a brand new kitchen after our lengthy renovations were finally completed. It wasn't long after the move back home that we discovered a lump on our dog Jasper's hind leg which was diagnosed as a bone cancer. This turned our world upside down as we were faced with the decision to amputate his leg and hope that no secondary cancers had started to form or to euthanise him in a week's time.

We gave our darling dog a chance and Jasper fully recovered from the amputation in a couple of weeks. His spirit did not change in the slightest, he still loved (and demanded) his daily walks and chased our cat Monty around the house at times. We cherished every day that we were able to spend with Jasper and tried to put in the back of our minds that our time with him could be limited.

Six months after the surgery Jasper's health deteriorated in a matter of days and an X-ray of his lungs confirmed our worst fears. A secondary cancer spread to his lungs and had been growing at an aggressive rate. It was so traumatic to hold him in our arms and watch him go to sleep forever. It was the first time the man and I had ever been in such a position with any of our pets. We were both totally devastated and couldn't function properly for days. He was like our second child, not a dog, which a lot of people wouldn't really understand.

Almost 4 months have passed but we are both still grieving. We miss him dearly and I still cry at times when I think of him. It has taken me until now to be able to write about him which hasn't been an easy task but hopefully it will help somehow. I still love seeing Jasper's cheeky grin every time I leave a comment on someone's blog so I won't be changing my profile picture anytime soon.

We planted a Japanese Maple in Jasper's resting place

Rather than leave you on a sad note, I'll sign off with a few goals for the year, which are:

• Update my blogger template soon. I have been looking into this for what feel likes ages but haven't been able to decide on a layout!
• Experiment with cuisines I haven't cooked with before.
• Take photos when eating out and post about these experiences more often.
• Participate in my 2nd Vegan MoFo.      

I would like to thank everyone that reads this blog and especially those who have left comments throughout the year. I really love hearing from you and appreciate every comment I receive. Hope you stick around for another year! 

VOTM - Broccoli

VOTM generated some interest with the man and son which I have found somewhat amusing as they usually don't have much involvement in my blog (other than eating and providing the odd bit of feedback). After I finished last month's cauliflower post, they both made separate requests for my vegetable of focus for the following month. I went with the man's choice this time as he selected broccoli and given that my last two VOTM posts were from the cruciferous family I decided to keep rolling with it. 

We have increased our consumption of broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts this winter and one of the reasons is due to our dear dog Jasper. When he was diagnosed with bone cancer earlier this year and we made the difficult decision to have the cancer removed (which meant a leg amputation), I spent a lot of time researching an anti-cancer diet for dogs. We were aware that after the removal of his bone cancer, there was a potential risk of a secondary cancer forming. 

Did someone say broccoli? Mmm...

Jasper deserved to have the best possible chance of leading a long and happy three legged life after going through such a big operation so his diet had to change. One thing that was common in my research was that cruciferous vegetables are most suitable for a dog's anatomy (therefore easier for them to digest) and their cancer fighting properties are beneficial to dogs as they are to humans. Broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage and asian greens have since become a component of Jasper's nightly meal solely for this reason. Jasper is showing no other signs of cancer five months after the operation (and we hope it continues this way) although I'll never really know whether the change in his diet has assisted in any way.

Broccoli is a vegetable that has been a part of our meals for many years although more recently I have been putting it to more interesting uses than just serving it steamed on the side. Vegan Yum Yum's broccoli dhal and broccoli/mushroom bake are a couples of recipes that were enjoyed in the past and more recently bistro broccoli chowder and 40 cloves chickpeas and broccoli  from Appetite for Reduction. Spinach was pushed aside to make way for broccoli in my latest version of home-made cannelloni and broccoli burgers were a great find thanks to the posts from Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe and Cindy and Michael of Where's the Beef. Broccoli also manages to find it's way into the majority of my stir-fry's and tastes amazing when roasted and is slightly charred. 

This simple broccoli-based pasta sauce is a work in progress... 

Deciding on a recipe for this month wasn't the easiest task. One of my intents with VOTM is to post a simple side dish for the particular vegetable of focus, however it was difficult to make up my mind this time around. Out of the many broccoli recipes I had been playing around with, none was particularly simple and there were definitely no side dishes! Our holiday to FNQ came and went at the end of last month and I missed my VOTM post for July which gave me some breathing space to ponder.

When serving steaming broccoli as a side one night, I decided to toss it with some garlic margarine that was left over from making garlic bread. This worked quite well although I found that steaming the broccoli left some water remnants which watered down the margarine to a degree. My alternative method was to roast the broccoli florets and serve them drizzled with garlic that had been cooked in dairy-free margarine. I preferred the second method and also cooked some cauliflower in the same fashion. They were both delicious and I could have eaten a truckload! 

I decided to post these couple of quick sides for this month as they are very simple, tasty and moreish. In fact, when rushing to get food on the table this week I was questioned why the plain steamed broccoli was not covered in garlic marg. It seems like this one will be a regular in the future...

Now's it time to get my thinking cap on for my son's request which I have a feeling could be another challenge!

Broccoli with garlic margarine - two ways

Cut a head of broccoli into florets and use as much garlic and dairy-free margarine as you like!

1. Steam broccoli florets until just tender, drain well, then toss with dairy-free margarine and minced garlic.
2. Roast broccoli florets at 200C for 20 minutes on a baking tray sprayed with olive oil. Meanwhile, melt dairy-free margarine in a small frying pan and cook minced garlic until it turns golden. Drizzle the garlic margarine over the broccoli when serving.  

Choc-mint balls

After being pestered to make more rum balls for ages despite there being a distinct lack of rum in the house, I had a moment of brilliance. Well I may have to give the man a bit of credit if my memory serves me right as he was the one that suggested I make choc-mint balls instead. By substituting a bit of peppermint essense in for the rum these old favorites took on a totally different flavour. I missed out on a photo the first time around as they were so popular with the boys and visitors (not that they look any different to the rum variety)!

The first batch I made a while ago only had 1 teaspoon of peppermint essense which gave the balls a hint of a pepperminty taste so I decided to increase the amount to 1 1/2 teaspoons this time and was much happier with the overall flavour. I actually prefer choc-mint balls over traditional rum balls, they are dangerously moreish.

This latest batch was made the other night when my darling dog was staying overnight at the vet as I wanted to occupy myself with further cooking after dinner was finished. Jasper was so excited when we picked him up the next day, it was very hard not to be emotional but all of the material we read advised that we needed to stay positive for him. He was up on his three feet with his tail wagging madly and desperately trying to spread his kisses around as quickly as he could manage.

It is remarkable to watch him progress every day and become more confident and adjusted to getting around without his fourth limb. We initially assisted Jasper up and down our back steps but after a day he decided he wanted to tackle it by himself and now has worked out several different methods to suit his needs. After such a difficult decision, it is a huge relief to see that he is happy...   

Choc-mint balls

250g packet Arnott's Nice biscuits
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
330g can Soymilke soy condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint essense
Extra desiccated coconut, for coating

Process biscuits in a food processor until they become a fine powder. Add the cocoa and 1/2 cup coconut to the food processor and pulse a few times. Transfer mixture to a bowl then add the soy condensed milk, peppermint essense and mix together until everything is well combined.

Place mixture in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to give it a firmer texture which makes it easier to roll the balls. If the mixture is too soft, it gets very sticky and difficult to roll properly and the balls will not hold their shape.

Put the extra coconut into a bowl. Roll spoonfuls of mixture into balls with your hands, and then coat in coconut. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

My best friend and a new friend

Last week I posted recipes a couple of times but my heart wasn't really in it. In fact, my passion for cooking over this time has diminished as we have been trying to come to terms with some heartbreaking news at home.  

A couple of weeks ago we noticed a sizeable lump on our beloved dog Jasper's hind foot and although we immediately made an appointment with our vet to have it checked out, we didn't really think it was anything to worry about. He is quite an active dog and it was probable that he could have injured himself on a walk, playing in the back yard or that he had been bitten by an insect.

Our vet was very concerned when he examined it and warned us about the worst case scenario - bone cancer. The next day Jasper went back for a biopsy and x-rays of the lump as well as his lungs, this is the first place that this type of cancer usually spreads to in dogs. Thankfully there were no signs of any tumours in his lungs but the vet was rather perplexed with the foot x-ray, stating that he had never seen anything like this type of growth before.   

After a long wait for the results we were finally told that Jasper has an extremely rare form of bone cancer (parosteal osteosarcoma). Osteosarcoma is very common in large breed dogs however the strain that Jasper has is so rare that our vet had never come across a patient with this condition and the pathologist who diagnosed it from the x-ray had only seen 3 cases in her career. The prognosis for parosteal osteosarcoma is better than a standard osteosarcoma as the cancer is slower to spread to other parts of the body.  

We basically had 3 options to consider, the first was to do nothing and to watch this horrible tumour grow, slowly debilitate our baby and in a matter of weeks he would have to be euthanised when the pain was too great. The second was to have his leg amputated, try to rehabilitate Jasper with three legs and hope that the cancer has not spread further. The third was to be referred to an oncologist, where they would probably perform more tests, the amputation and possibly chemotherapy. 

What a decision to make. Do you put your pet through such a huge change just so he can be around with you longer? Jasper is a perfectly happy and healthy dog in every other way. When we asked the vet for his opinion, he said if it was his dog he would have the leg amputated. This was extremely helpful as it was the decision we had been leaning towards but not quite able to commit to. As we were unable to see an oncologist in a timely fashion we opted to have our vet perform the amputation.

It has been a very difficult 6 months for us with our pets. Last September, we lost our first pet ever. Our 11 year old cat Samba died rather suddenly after experiencing kidney failure. In February, our other 11 year old cat Monty went missing for a few days and returned with a severe bladder infection that saw him hospitalised for days. At 8 years of age, we were definitely not expecting anything to go so wrong with our beloved dog.   

When this ordeal started, I immediately recalled a similar story that another blogger wrote about last year, Vaishali @ Holy Cow. I re-read her posts about her dog Lucy and found inspiration in the fact that Lucy had gone through an amputation due to osteosarcoma, recovered wonderfully and is leading a happy life today!

I wrote an email to Vaishali to tell her about Jasper's story and to ask some questions about Lucy and her recovery. I was astounded when I received a reply just over an hour later and as well as answering all of my questions, Vaishali was so sincere and caring in her response. I felt compelled to write again a few days later to let Vaishali know what our latest plans were and to send through a photo of Jasper. Again she replied promptly with further helpfulness. 

On Sunday night, I decided to cook a few things from the Holy Cow blog as a thank-you to Vaishali for all of her support and assistance over the last week. It is so nice to know there are people around that care so much for animals that they are willing to help a stranger out going through such a difficult time. 

I chose to make some Vegetable cutlets (spiced potato and vegie patties) as I knew the boys would like them and Spicy Urad Dhal because I love trying out different dhal recipes. Unfortunately I forgot to buy some coriander so this was omitted. I also subbed a diced carrot for the green beans in the patties. The cutlets were served with an eggplant pickle which was a nice compliment. These dishes were both nicely spiced and it was a delicious meal.

Jasper had a nice weekend, we went for a couple of short walks to some of his favourite haunts, he had a bath, spent lots of quality time with his family and has a nice new comfy bed (which he already loves) for when he comes home on Tuesday night. It will be a long lonely night for us all but at least we have heard that his surgery went well, we know he is in good hands that we trust and he is starting his road to recovery. After so many tears and uncertainty, at the very least we have given our precious boy a chance to live...