Vegan Treats

After I started eating meat two and a half years ago, I felt a sense of food liberation- I could eat anything! It made me a snob and I turned my nose up at vegetarians and especially vegans. Those poor limited saps, I thought while nibbling on sausages.
The truth is there is a lot of food I choose not to eat, for health reasons as well as ethical reasons. We try to avoid meat from CAFOs (we always buy local and responsibly raised while at the market, and try to avoid meat in restaurants unless we know where it comes from). We try to buy local and organic produce. We never eat fast food, though we frequent our neighborhood taqueria. We eat very few processed foods, many of which we process ourselves... and so on.
These days I have nothing against my vegetarian and vegan brothers and sisters, in fact we try to cater to them at food events. Cooking that way is pretty easy, and (aside from loving to add butter and cheese to everything) we cook that way most of the time.

Baking is another can of worms altogether.

Homemade applesauce!

Vegan baking is so scary! No eggs? No butter? It's not natural! In fact my biggest complaint/ concern when it comes to vegan baking is the use of highly processed substitutes. I wanted to bring some muffins to my sweet vegan friend Ash, so I did some searching, I found a recipe that looked pretty good, and I adapted it to fit my needs (no way was I going to buy margarine).

As it turned out these were some of the best muffins I've ever made! So moist and delicious.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour, (1 C whole wheat)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup soy buttermilk, (soy milk combined with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups blueberries (fresh if they are in season, I used frozen not thawed)

Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used hazel nuts)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Heat oven to 350.
Mix crumble topping ingredients and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix applesauce, soy buttermilk, sugar, melted coconut oil and vanilla.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the berries. Don't over mix.
Pour the batter into muffin tin, sprinkle with the crumble topping and bake for about 17-20 minutes. Let cool before serving. Yum!

Commitment

It's been two months sense we've posted anything here.  I'm so embarrassed.  I have so many excuses... Shop Party kept us busy, and it was a great success!

Shop Party.  Photo by Zohn Mandel

Photo by Zohn Mandel

Holiday festivities made us dizzy, what with all the fancy cocktail parties, Cioppino feeds, our open house, NYE candlelit dinner, and our annual New Years Day brunch.  Unfortunately this out of focus picture is the only thing to show of it.

This year I went against tradition and made some new year resolutions, one of which is to take more pictures.

Then we made hundreds of cookies a dozen cakes for a dreamy Descry event in San Francisco. 

We Dream in the Daytime Too event at Photobooth.  Photo By Photobooth

Devoured dreamy cakes and cookies.  Photo by Photobooth

All of a sudden I came to- and it was February!

Nick and I celebrated Valentines day early and went to Sea View for the weekend.  I prepared a dream lovers menu for us.

Day 1

Mimosa

New Mexican Pinon coffee

Real Belgian Waffles with maple syrup, strawberries, and pancetta

Oeufs en Cocotte

Cheese plate

Roasted fennel & pancetta salad

(this is where the camera battery died)

Roasted balsamic cinnamon pears with vanilla ice cream

Day 2

Broiled grapefruit

Coffee
Toast

Valentines Day has me thinking about commitment... I'm prepared to re-commit myself to this blog.  I'm prepared to share what I'm eating and cooking with greater success.  I hope we haven't lost you for good.  

LOVE

b&r

Ritual

Simple mornings are very important to me.
I have a ritual.
During the week, I pour the hot water over the Ecco coffee in the french press.  Nick will press the coffee and have a cup before rushing off to work.  I will pour a cup for myself while I make breakfast.  My favorite breakfast is a poached egg salad.

Recently however, Nick has taken a job in San Francisco and a few day a week I am on my own.  I make my own coffee, and with the mornings as dark and cold as they have been I'm hooked on oatmeal.

I like mine with dried blueberries and raisins, milk, and (a tiny bit) of maple syrup.

The Backyard Benefit Brunch

Good vibes galore at the Benefit Brunch. We had a delicious meal with old friends, new friends, plenty of baby friends and four-legged friends. Odd Bird, Little Lost Boys, Chris Grabill, and Oona & Co played rotating three-song sets as we sat in the straw and basked in the sunshine.




There was something special in the air that mixed with the music. I think it was the love we all show each other in this community. Such incredible talent is fostered here, and we are proud to be a part of it.

Salads For Breakfast, Breakfast For Dinner

I like a big breakfast, and I have one almost every day.  Eggs in the morning are more essential than coffee, which I love, but believe it or not, I could take or leave.  My love for breakfast extends beyond breakfast and can easily spill into lunch or dinner. 
One of our favorite anytime breakfasts is tonight's dinner : poached egg salad.

 

Make any sort of simple green salad, fry some bacon and then chop it up.  Dress your salad with whatever dressing you like (we make a vinaigrette), then toss in the bacon.  Poach an egg and place it on top.  Toast a hunk of your favorite bread, serve it on the side, and voila:  Breakfast Dinner is served.

 

Happy Circling The Sun

It is important to start the year off right.  On January first our guests and ourselves slipped out of bed for breakfast.  I boiled and baked some bagels, roasted some root vegetables left over from dinner the night before (Chelsea had made us a delicious beef stew), John cleaned up the kitchen, Ashley and Judah poured us all mimosas, and Derrek brewed us cups of coffee in his Chemex pot in the living room (as now the kitchen was overflowing).  Along with bagels and roasted veggies, we had eggs, bacon, and potatoes left over from the night before (Ashley had made potatoes au gratin).  Lastly, and perhaps most important for the new year, everyone was made to eat black eyed peas.  Black eyed peas are to be consumed on new years day for luck and prosperity, and we could all use a bit of both.
It is my hope that all of our meals in the new year are as abundant and auspicious.

As luck would have it, my dad offered Nick and I some crab.  As if we would ever turn down crab.  I wasn't sure how we would eat the crab, seeing as Mondays usually leave me feeling less than inspired and it is so very hard for me to resist eating the crab right out of the shell. We did manage to fill a bowl with crab meat, and we decided to make crab cakes.

There are dozens of crab cake recipes out there, ours went like this:
Roughly a pound of crab meat
A few slices of green onion (I used the ends of the onions)

Salt & pepper to taste
A splash of white wine vinegar
A heaping spoonful of mayonnaise
Several tablespoons of panko breadcrumbs
One egg
I mixed all the ingredients together.

I then made small patties of crab on a baking sheet and popped them in the 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  I decided to also fry a few cakes in bacon fat. both ways of cooking the crab cakes were effective and delicious.  I mixed up a little spicy sour cream sauce for the cakes, though they didnt need anything, and we simply devoured them.

These crab cakes would make outstanding crab cake tacos, and I would highly recommend eating them that way if you can make it to a tortilla with enough crab to put in it.
Happy New Year!
Eat well!

Round Like The Sun. The Days Are Getting Longer!

Where are the best bagels in Santa Rosa?  Small bagel chains in Sonoma Valley simply don't cut it for me.  Nick and I were talking about how a good bagel is SO GOOD, and we couldn't figure out the best bagel place in town.  We mean the best of the best, not-just-good-but-great bagels.  So I decided to try to make them myself.

I had invited my dad and Midori over for a birthday breakfast, and I thought what better Solstice birthday breakfast than a round like the sun bagel.  Also, it is good to try out recipes on your family, because if it is unsuccessful they will still be your family.

Bagels should be golden and shiny to look at, with a crunchy crust and chewy inside.
I gave it my best shot; knead, wait, roll, boil, bake.  The hardest part was keeping my "O" together, the ends didn't want to stick.  However, we noticed they were "G" shaped and decide it was intentional.

I made a few poppy seed, and a few sesame seed varieties, why not?
I think they turned out pretty damn good.

I made quite a spread; cream cheese, lox, capers, onions, butter, jelly, jam...

I wasn't keeping track or anything, but I did happen to notice a few people helping themselves to seconds and even thirds.

They were good. Really good.

Thanks

It's not hard to be thankful, even when we are so spoiled. Nick and I are blessed, our lives are charmed, our home is warm, our bellies are usually (too) full, our chickens are happy and healthy... We are happy and healthy. Our dog and cats are playing as I type in bed.  We live in such an amazing, abundant, and beautiful place.

I am tempted to go over the top and describe the sun shining in through the window and the crisp morning garden, but I will not.

I will only say Nick is up making coffee, and soon I will pick some spinach from the garden, eggs from the coop, and make an omelet.

But this is our everyday routine.  As much as we try, we sometimes forget how much we have to be thankful for.

Spinach, cheese, and turtle bean omelet

Nick and I do remind ourselves all the time how lucky we are.  We take deep breaths, we admire our skyline, we ride our bikes, we sit down to eat, we eat.  Like I said, we are blessed, and we are not alone.  We have the support and love of our friends, family, and community, and they have our support and love in return.

My family always gets together in Marin for Thanksgiving, I look forward to it every year.  All of us, over twenty people usually, gather around to catch up with each other and eat the hors d'oeuvres everyone has contributed (we are going to bring some kind of cured meat, soft cheese, homemade jam concoction).  I have the good fortune of coming from a family of talented cooks and amazing palates, so everything on the table is so good that by the time dinner is ready I am already full.  I am not even going to try to pace myself this year, I am going to be thankful for everything I eat, and wear a full skirt, and maybe even take a nap.
I hope everyone is mindful of their abundance today.  Feel deeply, feel grateful, eat good food with good people, remember that we are all good people.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Let Us Eat Mouth Fulls of Cake

I've long held that I am not much of a baker. Baking is science, where cooking is art. I have thrown together all sorts of powders and goos and liquids and out of the oven came salty cookies, rock hard bread, runny gratin, popovers that didn't pop anywhere... just to name a few. It's the measuring of just the right ingredients that held me up.

I've been persevering though and I've had some successes. The main reasons for my success is I've slowed down and I've had faith in my books. I know if I read the instructions, and take my time following them, something magical happens.
I like sweets. I believe sweets should be beautiful. Receiving them and eating them should be precious, like a little gift. I really romanticize baked goods. Pie fresh from the oven! Scones filling the morning with there salty sweet aroma! Hardly being able to wait until the dish has cooled before you burn your tongue on... whatever it is, it's worth it!

I wanted to make something simple, and suitable for dessert or breakfast. I also didn't want to go to the market (baking usually requires a trip, as we are often fresh out of butter or cocoa or milk). I picked up "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" turned to the index and saw Apple Walnut Cake. Without even flipping to the recipe I had made up my mind, I had apples and I had walnuts, it was settled, my mouth began to water. 
When I turned to the recipe I realized I did not have many of the ingredients needed, and without batting an eye I went to pealing apples. I knew that I could make some very simple substitutions without compromising the integrity of the final product. When did this happen?! When did I learn enough about the ingredients in my pantry to know how to use what, when? And to make a cake! I felt creative, clever, artistic! I have to say I impressed even myself. I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did.

My Apple Walnut Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's "How to Be a Domestic Goddess"
1/2 cup raisins
4 T hot water
4 T port
1/2 plus 2 T canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tea cinnamon
1 1/2 tea baking soda
1 tea baking powder
1/2 tea salt
1 lbs. apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Put raisins in a bowl with port and hot water
Preheat oven to 350
Beat the oil and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beat until mixture looks like mayonnaise. Add the dry ingredients, until combined. Add apples, walnuts, and drained raisins. Put the cake mix (which will be fairly stiff, almost like a cookie dough) into a buttered 8-inch spring-form pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cake stand for 10 minuets, then turn it out and let it cool completely (yeah... good luck).

It turned out delicious! It was nice with a pad of butter fresh from the oven, and the next morning with coffee, or on it's own, by the mouthful as I was passing through the kitchen.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Nick and I had an amazing start to birthday week!
We went to Sea View Saturday night, had a hearty breakfast of potatoes, sausage, and a poached egg salad.


After we cleaned up, we got in the car and made our way to Mendocino.
We stopped at Glass Beach, where the weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. While admiring the beach we discovered our camera was broken so unfortunately, we are unable to show you how magical it was. From Glass Beach, we drove to Ricochet Ridge Ranch, where Nick treated me to a ten mile beach ride. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, and part of the ride was through the forest where we were able to snatch blackberries as we rode by.
My horse was a retired race horse who was still very competitive and didn't like it when Nick's horse tried to walk in front of him. Throughout the whole ride I had the most ridiculous grin from ear to ear. I really felt wrapped in love, it was such a beautiful day, such an amazing experience, and such a special and thoughtful birthday gift. Experiences are so much better then things.
After our ride it was time for dinner, so we got a bite in Mendocino, and headed home. We had to stop twice on our way home, once to climb onto the roof of our car to admire all the stars we can't see living in town, and once to admire the giant orange moon low on the horizon. Perfection.
Yesterday, I was gearing up for today, cleaned the house a little and making a carrot birthday cake, sorry no pictures, but it was delicious,
(the recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen):
Carrot Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger (I used fresh but you can use ground)
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.
Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins.

Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans (I don't have any two cake pans that are the same size so I did a slightly smaller cake for the top layer). Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Cool cakes completely. And frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Beat all the ingredients until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.
I have frosting left over so I am going to fold in some whipped cream and use that to fill my birthday cream puffs!
I am feeling particularly blessed this birthday, thank you all for the love, support, and sweet wishes.
AND bear with us as we may have either very few or very crude pictures, until we figure out what is wrong with our camera, or we get a new one.

LOVE

Sunday

I love Sundays. They are sweet and slow, and ours started with a delicious mess of a breakfast, Blackberry Dutch Pancake.
We walked across the street for the Northern California Bike Expo and then we made our slow way to sweet peaches.
We bought a flat of soft sweet yellow peaches, and a few tomatoes.
Today it is my task to transform our peaches. I'll let you know how they turn out.