julicorn's journey

Today we're going to Eastbourne to my boss's housewarming. I'm looking forward, it'll be nice to see his family and his new home.
We're meant to go there with my colleague though, and he still hasn't made up his mind on whether he's driving or taking the train, and what time to leave. That sort of last minute planning is sooo not my thing - I blame being German, I can't handle it! :rotfl:

Hi Runders, thank you, and yes it was an awesome feeling!

We also shop at M&S sometimes, because we still have some money left on a £120 M&S voucher we got for taking out life insurance earlier this year. Our local M&S is tiny though, so they also don't stock a lot. They have a lot more random ingredients though, like they don't have black beans or tinned lentils, but sell some sort of Japanese mayonnaise in a carton?

We've also been getting Abel & Cole veg boxes for years. 5 years at least! We used to get them weekly, but have now changed to getting them every 2 weeks as we didn't always use up all of the veg in time. The veg is always so fresh that it lasts soooo much longer than the stuff we buy in supermarkets as well, I think it's well worth the money personally.

Tofu - yes, sure! What sort of tofu do you use? The type of tofu makes all the difference. We mostly use firm or extra firm tofu, there's a brand called Tofoo which is very widely available now which is really good. They make standard and smoked tofu. There's another brand called Taifun which you can get in lots of health food stores and Waitrose as well, and they have lots of differently flavoured tofu, like basil, sundried tomato, black forest smoked, that sort of thing - those are great too.
If you're just using plain tofu, then I would recommend marinading it for at least half an hour or so, so it takes on some flavour. Otherwise it's very plain. We usually cut the tofu into small to medium cubes and pan-fry it on high heat, makes it nice and crispy. Sometimes I also smother it in some sort of sauce and bake it in the oven. Or what's nice too is breading it first, and then frying it.

Tofu turning to mush sounds like you're using a much softer tofu. Aside from firm tofu, there's also medium/soft tofu (which you could turn into firm tofu by pressing it, but who can be bothered with that?) and silken tofu. Silken tofu is the sort of thing you see as little cubes in miso soup. It's almost got a boiled egg-white consistency, and is good for making desserts and can be used in creamy sauces as well. Although I usually make bechamel and similar sauces out of cashews, but that's a different story.

If you would like some inspiration, I've got 2 favourite recipe websites at the moment - Minimalist Baker and Isa Chandra. They're both amazing.