Vegan MoFo day 13 - Welcome to my kitchen

Today's MoFo prompt gave me the vicious earworm that is You Will Always Find Me in the Kitchen Parties, so I've decided to inflict it on you. Join me in my jauntily-tuned 1970s music hell:




That said, you'll always find me in the kitchen at parties, and most other times when I'm in the house.

Before I take you around my kitchen, I'll point out that Mr Flicking the Vs is a veggie, not a vegan, so you may find not vegan materials in the following photos. Yeah, I'm tutting too.

Anyway, here's where the magic happens:

Look, I've even done the washing up because I knew you were coming round, and there's a fresh loaf of bread cooling on the stove.

While it's a stereotype that all British people love tea and drink it all the time, I love tea and drink it all the time. My kitchen is replete with different kinds  - builder's for first thing in the morning, redbush for the rest of the day. Soy milk, no sugar, since you asked. And that ancient red tin? That's where you'll find the biscuits. And if you fancy something a bit fancy, there's Russian Caravan. Or if you're in the mood for green, there's genmaicha and hojicha bancha. Not floating your boat? There's oolong and hibiscus. If that's not working for you, there's coffee too, with caffeine or without.

There's a massive dehydrator too, which doesn't get as much of a workout as it should. The last thing that I dehydrated the hell out of was half a watermelon. It was surprisingly tasty - like watermelon jerky.

Behind it is a great wooden dish my friend R gave me many years ago, and I love it a great deal. It serves me now by taking care of any veggies that don't need the fridge. Above it is a picture I saw at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and loved so much I bought a print of it. It's by a Finnish photographer called Kai Fagerstrom who took a series of pictures of an abandoned cottage in a forest, and the animals that have made the place their home. The photos are collected in a beautiful book, the House in the Woods (there's a taste of the contents here).

There's also a pestle and mortar in my kitchen that a friend gave me a couple of years ago and I think is totally amazing. How is it that the best kitchen gadget in the world is one that's been around since the dawn of time? The pestle and mortar sits on a little spot where I sometimes eat breakfast, and sometimes if I've got something on the stove, I can prop up my laptop, type with one hand and stir a pot with the other.

The mortar and pestle is next to the stove, and near where I keep the oil, vinegar, and salt. There's also some tofu sheets that have been there since we moved in. I keep promising myself I'd make some sort of spring roll arrangement with tofu instead of spring roll wrappers, but since they're still there, you know I've not been successful.

There's also a good few plants in all around the house and the kitchen is no exception. There's always sempervivums around the house as they tend to breed like topsy. As they're so dinky and fertile, I'm always looking for new receptacles for them - the little pots here are tiny 1960s espresso cups that used to belong to Mr Flicking the Vs' gran.

There's more plants next to the bookcase in the kitchen. Every kitchen needs a bookcase for cookbooks, I think!

The bookcase not only stashes all my cookbooks, but also all my homemade booze. I love making homemade booze - sorry, flavoured liqueurs - with all sorts of things. With some cheapo gin or vodka and some fruit, you can create something lovely - I've got some blackberry and apple on the go. I've also experimented with grapefruit vodka (verdict: lovely) and homemade coffee liqueur (verdict: nice, but recipe needs work). I've even got some tarragon and garlic vodka - a little odd on its own, but really good for bloody marys.

Thanks for dropping by my kitchen for MoFo. I'll get the kettle on, shall I?