Constantly on the Move

Well hello there! My poor little blog has been left alone for over a month due to me travelling around the world. (Well, America and Europe.)

First, I went to Florida to visit my 97 year old grandfather. Yes! 97!

Then I was back in NYC for a couple of days before I headed to Europe. First stop in Europe was London where I ran a 10K and goofed around with my best friend from college.

Next stop was Durham, UK, to see where my bestie was getting educated for the past nine months.

So, she's been going to Hogwarts. Cool.

Then we headed up to Edinburgh, Scotland, where I had some proper tea at Edinburgh Castle.

After many fun filled days, I said good bye to her and went to Trondheim, Norway, where the sun never set! It was beautiful and I had tons of fun with my Viking-tall friend and his pals.

No. No photoshop on the above photo. Norway is just that beautiful. And check out what one coffee shop called a blueberry muffin! 

Mmmm. It was delicious.

After floating down the river in Trondheim a couple of days, I bade farewell to my friend and went to Brussels, Belgium, to visit another good friend of mine.

He actually just became owner of La Reserve in Brussels, so if you're over there, check it out! Seeing he's in the restaurant business, he knew where to take me to eat and be merry. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD IN BELGIUM! I can't wait to go back. 

Brussels really enjoys comics which is great seeing I do, too! They paint many different sides of buildings with cute murals. Super cute, right? 

Something else that was super was the breakfast my amazing Belgian friend brought one morning. I think the photo speaks for itself:

After much fun in Belgium I boarded a train headed for Paris. Yes! Paris. The only place in Europe I've ever wanted to visit and I was finally there!

You can find many a blogpost on Paris food and tourist sites, so I will leave you with two things you can't find much of.

Me, singing again at Dîner en Blanc, but this time in PARIS!!!! (Here's my outfit followed by a little snippet of Que sera sera.)

And then, my wonderful vegan friend from Toulouse came up to Paris to take part in the diner and she made an amazing vegan dessert.

It was a cherry almond clafoutis and it made a really good meal into a really great meal.

After another fun and ethereal Dîner en Blanc, I headed back to NYC and ran a 10K the next day. (I have a problem and should seek help. I know.)

Then, 34 hours after landing in NYC, I was off to Pittsburgh which is where I've been for 2 weeks. And guess what! Today I baked. Check out the next post to see what I made. (It was yummy!!!!)

Bake well and prosper!



Raw Dessert: Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Cashew Cream

Happy New Year! Did you make a resolution? I had figured out one of my resolutions in the middle of December. I wanted to eat raw foods for all of Jan. But then I realized that I'll be visiting New Orleans in January, so I was a little behooved since I knew I'd be enjoying the traditional NOLA food (which is far from raw).

 

But then I realized that I could view every day as the start of a new year! Thus, on Dec 26, I started eating my raw foods diet and have been on it every day since (minus one dinner.)

 

It's been so helpful within the past couple of cold days to be eating raw foods. My skin usually gets really dry in the winter, but if I eat my raw foods diet of mainly greens, nuts, and fruits, my skin has no problem (even in this 5 degree weather). Yay!

 

A couple of months ago I discovered a wonderful raw food blog: This Rawesome Vegan Life. You guys should check it out. It contains tons of beautiful food and photography.

 

Anyway, I visited it again this past weekend to find a dessert and voila! I made this tart. I really like its creamy and sweet filling surrounded by a firm crust. Next time I think I would double the crust and mousse recipe and then put it all in a springform pan.

Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Cashew Cream (adapted from This Rawesome Vegan Life)Crust: (Erika's Extras: I would double this and put in a springform pan.)

3/4 cup oats, buckwheat groats or nuts

3/4 cup raisins

1 heaping tablespoon cacao powder

1 tablespoon of raw honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Lemon cashew cream:

1 cup soaked cashews

Juice from 1 lemon

1/4 of a banana, sliced

pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Chocolate mousse: (Erika's Extras: I would double this as well.):

1 avocado

1 cup dates

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons cacao powder

1/2 cup water, more or less as needed

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

 

To make the crust: pulse the oats, buckwheat groats or nuts in a food processor until they turn into crumbs. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until it all sticks together. Press into two lined tart tins and put in the fridge.

To make the cashew cream: blend all the ingredients until smooth. Set in the fridge.

To make the mousse: blend all the ingredients until smooth. Spread into the bottom of your tart crusts and cover with the cashew cream. Put back in the fridge overnight or for at least a couple hours. Dust with cacao and serve!

 

Erika's Extras: Make sure you have soaked cashews (which takes a couple of hours) before you start assembling. Recipe takes about 20 minutes to make and then a couple of hours to set.

Bake well and prosper!

Raw & Vegan "Cookie Dough" Treats

Oh man. I have been slacking off in the kitchen. This is my first recipe post for April. (Yeah...I know...it's already April 24.) I could make a lot of excuses, but I'm just going to make one: this long winter in NYC is zapping my want to do much of anything. It's kind of sad.

Wearing a coat at the end of April is not my idea of stimulating.

Trying to make my own raw food recipe, however, DID stimulate my mind. Yesterday I started thinking of ways to make my own dessert recipe with almond butter. And can I just say, "Ohmygoodness! Thisissogood! Wanttoeatall! Nom nom nom."

I knew I wanted to make something with raw almond butter so I went to the local organic bodega in my neighborhood and bought some. (Please note: you can make your own almond butter, but my food processor is in need of an upgrade.) While I was in the store I also grabbed some raw chocolate sauce.

In my kitchen I grabbed some oatmeal and agave nectar and started to blend all four ingredients together. The "dough" came together beautifully. But I felt like it was missing something...

Ah! Cacao nibs! Yes! I rolled the dough in the nibs and thus created a lovely snack that I plan to make all week long. (Or until my ingredients run out.)

So, if you would like an easy treat to make that's also fairly good for you, try this recipe. It really does taste like cookie dough!

Raw & Vegan "Cookie Dough" Treats (by me!)
3/4 cup of dried oatmeal (I used quick oats)
2+ Tablespoons of raw almond butter
1+ Tablespoon of raw chocolate sauce
1 teaspoon of agave nectar (or use raw honey, maple syrup, or a food processed date)
cacao nibs for rolling the dough in

Stir the oatmeal, almond butter, and chocolate sauce together. Add more almond butter/chocolate sauce as needed to get the desired consistency. Stir in the agave nectar. This will help solidify the dough. Roll small amounts of dough in palm of hand and then roll in cacao nibs. Eat room temperature or place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Makes around 15.
Store in air tight container in fridge.

Bake well and prosper!

Apple Crisp in Mini Pumpkins (Vegan Option Available)

I have a little phobia when it comes to carving pumpkins. You see, when I was 14 I was at a party where everyone was carving pumpkins. While I was carving mine, I got my knife stuck in the pumpkin. The next thing I knew I had broken the knife in half. One part was in my hand and one was in the pumpkin! I felt so badly about breaking the host's knife.

So, there I was this morning, cutting into a pumpkin for about the 4th time in my life... I kept switching knives because I was so scared about a repeat knife break. 

Look! None were broken. But yes, I used all 4 for this tiny little pumpkin.

And in even more good news, getting the seeds out of the pumpkin turned out to be very messy (and quite clingy).

I've been hankering to make this recipe for weeks now, but sleep seemed more important than baking. My schedule has been super busy the last two weeks and continues to be, but I finally bounced out of bed early this morning ready for this fun recipe. 

Whether you bounce out of bed or slowly roll out, try making this recipe. It's fun to put together and rather healthy for you as well!

Apple Crisp in Mini Pumpkins (adapted from The View from the Great Island)

1/2 apple chopped in small chunks (peeled if you'd prefer)

Juice from 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp flour

1/2 Tbsp soft butter (don't add this if wanting to keep it vegan)

2 Tbsp chopped almonds

1 Tbsp raisins

2 Tbsp oats

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut tops off of pumpkins and remove all seeds and as much of the pumpkin strings as possible. Prepare ingredients and mix them in a medium bowl. Stuff inside pumpkins. (Should fill 3 small pumpkins.) Add  a little bit of butter on top of each mixture. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the pumpkin is soft.

Feel free to put whip cream with cinnamon or nutmeg on top or drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake well and prosper!

Vegan Breakfast Cookies

Confession (I feel like I confess a lot on my blog...) - I've never used coconut oil before. This recipe calls for it and I was scared that I wouldn't even find it at the grocery store. But there it was in the "European and World" food isle.

When I opened it up at home I was surprised to see it was in a solid form. I guess I was expecting more of a liquid oil. I was concerned I would never get it blended into the cookie dough. But then I researched it online and found out that it usually comes in solid form and softens very quickly in heat. I let out a sigh of relief.

You can make these cookies with normal chocolate chips, but since I had vegan chocolate chips on hand I decided to use those. Therefore it made the recipe vegan.

I really enjoyed these as did the few people I shared them with. One friend said, "I could eat a couple of these each morning." To which I said, "Me too. In fact, I think I ate 5 this morning!"

Vegan Breakfast Cookies (Modified from uTry.it)

Ingredients

2 bananas (preferably ripe or spotty bananas)

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Then, mix the remaining ingredients into the bananas until well combined.

Allow the batter to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. With a mini ice cream scoop (about 1 tablespoon), place the batter onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Bake well and prosper!

Vegan Pie - Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie

My best friend in France (grant it, I only have 5 friends in France...but she's my best one!) sent me a vegan pie cookbook for a thank you gift. (She made the vegan brownies way back in 2010.) The thanks was due because I shipped her a gift for her boyfriend (and herself) from America which meant I had to drag myself to the post office a week or two BEFORE Christmas and fill out a customs form etc etc. *shudder*

Actually, it wasn't all that bad. Quite easy. And the thank you gift came as a nice surprise.

I should have made something sooner, but making this type of vegan dessert meant being able to go to a specialty grocery store. Seeing I hardly go to my normal grocery store, it took me awhile to go to Whole Foods to get the ingredients. But I got them! Here are some of the special ones I found:

(Really, I only needed to go to Whole Foods for the vegan chocolate chips, but I figured I'd get fancy graham crackers and corn starch while I was at it.)

I must admit that I was a little "meh" about making a vegan pie. 1. I'm a milk type of gal. 2. I'm a cookies type of gal. But I started on the crust and guess what! I made a mess!

I knew from then that this recipe was going to rock! And rock it did! I had one piece and then HAD to have a second piece right away!

(But please don't tell my French vegan friend that I had the second piece with milk. Shhhhh!)

Cette recette était super délicieux! Vous devriez essayer le faire. (Thanks google translate! I hope that translated correctly to "This recipe was super yummy! You should try making it.")

Vegan Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie (from Vegan Pie in the Sky)

Ingredients for the crust:

1 3/4 cups finely ground graham crackers

        (made from 10 ounces of whole graham crackers)  

        (Erika's Extras: Mine had oatmeal on it and I thought

          it was a nice flavor added to the crust.)

3 Tablespoons sugar

4 Tablespoons melted hydrogenated margarine, melted coconut oil, or canola oil

   (Erika's Extras: I used canola oil but I think the

    margarine would solidify it better.

    Mine was quite crumbly on the edges.)

1 Tablespoon plain soy milk or almond milk

   (Erika's Extras: I used almond milk because it's part of

    the ingredients for the filling.)

Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and lightly spray a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the graham crumbs and sugar. Drizzle in the oil or melted margarine. Use a spoon to blend the mixture thoroughly to moisten the crumbs, then drizzle in the soy or almond milk and stir again to form a crumbly dough.

3. Pour the crumbs into the pie plate. Press crumbs into the sides of the plate first, then work your way down to the bottom, Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until firm. Let the crust cool before filling.

Ingredients for the Filling

3 cups almond milk

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Big pinch of salt

1/4 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a small (2-quart) saucepan off the heat, combine 1 cup of the almond milk and the cornstarch. Use a fork to whisk it until the cornstarch is good and dissolved. Whisk in the remaining almond milk, the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. it's ok if the cocoa is a bit clumpy at first; it will dissolve eventually.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking occasionally. Keep a close eye because once boiling, you need to lower the heat and bring the mixture to a slow rolling boil. Whisk consistently until the mixture is thickened, which should be about 7 minutes. (Erika's Extras: I never found that this "thickened." It became slightly more solid and then once it cools it is fine. Don't expect it to grab on the whisk much.)

3. Add the chocolate chips and mix to melt. Stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the pudding into the prepared pie shell and let cool for about 15 minutes on the counter, just until it stops steaming. To keep a skin from forming, place a circle of parchment paper over the filling when setting in the fridge. Refrigerate and let set for at least 3 hours. 

Bake well and prosper!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies - Toulouse, France

While I was on my European vacation disaster struck! I LEFT MY CAMERA IN SYROS. IN a BODEGA. And I realized this WHILE the ferry was LEAVING the island.

I had a slight freak out for 15 minutes and then calmed down. It's just a thing. A possession. It's not my passport, which would be a problem.

Once I got a hold of my friend on Syros (4 hours after I left the island), he secured the camera from the bodega. Whew!

Unfortunately this meant that I wouldn't have my nice camera for the second part of my European trip which was in France. :( This just means that I'll have to go back sometime soon with my nice camera to take better pictures, obviously. :)

Toulouse was lovely (even with a normal point and shoot!) This is the view from my friend's apartment. Incredible, right?!

The city of Toulouse had a wonderful City Hall and operas are performed there. Some day maybe I'll sing there too!

After eating days of healthy Mediterranean fare, I rejoiced with being surrounded by buttery goodness again. I probably had 2 types of croissants a day. Yes, TWO. I also had about 1.5 desserts each day too. Mmmm. The above picture is of a famous patisserie in Toulouse where I had a chocolate almond croissant. Yes. Chocolate AND almond filling with sliced almonds and powdered sugar on top. I was in heaven!

One of the coolest things I did while in Toulouse was sing on top of my friend's apartment, which happened to be a tower from the 12th century. My voice bounced off the tiled roofs and cut through the gloomy clouds. People of the neighborhood opened their windows and enjoyed my impromptu concert. I even received applause! :)

My friend Marie and her boyfriend enjoyed the private concert very much. Then we went back inside to enjoy Marie's WONDERFUL vegan chocolate chip cookies.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Post Punk Kitchen)

Makes two dozen two inch cookies or about 16 three inch cookies

1/2 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (Marie felt that the cookies were too oily so we suggest you cut this amount down by a teeny bit)
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important to not skip this step. Mix in the vanilla.

Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.

For 3 inch cookies, roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 – until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

For 2 dozen two inch cookies roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches and bake for only six minutes.

I had such a lovely time in both Greece and France. I can't wait to go back!

I get my camera back this week and will be back in the kitchen to share tons of goodies with y'all!

Bake well and prosper!

Speedy Post

Hi! I'm in Ireland right now and am on a computer that costs €1 per 8 minutes, so I'm gonna type fast and won't type much. (The things I do for my readers....)

Last week I hosted a girl, Marie, from Toulouse, France via couchsurfing. I was lucky enough to couchsurf in Charleston through a friend of a friend of a friend, so I felt that I should try to return the favor. (I know it sounds crazy and ''hippy-esque'' but check it out: http://www.couchsurfing.org/)

Marie turned out to be awesome! Super cute, hip, vegan feminist with VERY good English.

I know....VEGAN! So, she decided to have her own boxed brownies competition. Boxed brownies vs made from scratch vegan brownies.

Once again I used a box that was given to me.
Here were Marie's main ingredients.
I watched mesmerized/intrigued. Especially when she poured the eggs into the mix. Yes...the ''eggs.''
The chocolate mix was made pretty much the way that my supernatural brownies are made, but this was vegan butter!
Well, I HATED the taste of the brownie mixture and it baked very poorly (as seen below.)
Marie's came out very lovely and moist. They came out THE WINNER!

From Marie:

So here is an approximation of the recipe. The ingredients weren't all right that I used in America, so this recipe is going to work better I think! It's the original one from the Vegansfields website:

Vegan Brownies

150gr/5 ounces dark chocolate
10gr/1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
80gr/2,5 ounces non-dairy milk
120gr/1 cup margarine
20gr/2 teaspoons egg replacement (potato starch or corn starch or proper egg replacer)
90gr/3 ounces flour
90gr/3ounces brown sugar
50gr/1,5 ounces of chocolate chips or chopped nuts or candied orange, anything you like really
1/4 teaspoon raising powder

Preheat oven at 180°C, or thermostat 6.
In a bowl, mix together flour, egg replacement, sugar, raising powder. Slowly melt chocolate via microwave or steamer on stove, cocoa powder and margarine together. When melted, remove from stove and add non-dairy milk. Mix well to get a creamy texture.
Add this cream to the dry ingredients and mix well. The batter will thicken somewhat.
Add the chopped nuts (if adding chocolate chips, wait for the mix to be completely cold before you add them, n'est-ce pas...).
Pour into a "margarined" baking pan (or line it with baking paper (?)).
Bake for 23 minutes or until the top is cooked and the inside is not liquid any more (or use the old knife trick).
When it has cooled off, put in the fridge for a night or 12 hours. Remove from the fridge 10 minutes before eating and cut in any shapes you like.

Bake well and prosper!