festive

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

December 19, 2009

Once upon a time, on a cold dark winter night, I was living in a tiny condo in downtown Toronto. The condo was a furnished short-term rental, and the kitchen was bare-bones - not a pan, whisk, or mixing bowl to be seen. It was about this time of the year, and I wanted to make a festive treat to enjoy with my sweetheart. Something easy. Something beautiful. Something familiar, but different...

I perused some of my favourite food blogs, and was inspired by this stellar recipe for peanut butter cups. I imagined a variation with 2 of my favorite things: super-fine dark chocolate and smooth almond butter. Add a sprinkle of sea salt and whoa ~

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

I've been hanging on to this lovely recipe for over a year now, and finally have a drop of time to share it. ¡Feliz Navidad mis amigos!

Festive Persian Cookies

December 14, 2008


Nan-e Nokhodchi (Roasted Chickpea Four-Leaf Clover Cookies). Image from Vegtarian Times

I'm back on the scene with some great recipes to share. (Selling our condo + (moving x 2) = super busy...) I have a couple of killer recipes to post before taking off for Mexico too - but first, Persian cookies!

I love Persian cookies. They're aromatic, pretty, and wonderfully flavoured with awesome things like rose water, cardamom, cinnamon, honey, saffron, pistachios, almonds, walnuts... perfect for festive cookie season. Here are some classics from the web, all wheat-free, beautifully flavoured, shortbread-like, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Nan-e Gerdui (Walnut Cookies with cardamom, topped with pistachios)
A fantastic cookie recipe + a history lesson.

Persian Rice Cookies
A traditional aromatic and delicate little cookie flavoured with rosewater, cardamom, and adorned with pistachios.

Another recipe for Persian Rice Cookies from an accomplished traveling food blogger. Included on this page are 3 other stellar cookie recipes from around the world. I love the sounds of the Ricciarelli (Sienese Almond Cookies): "Snow-white outside and meltingly soft inside, they're a fragrant, cloudlike version of the best marzipan you've ever eaten." Yum!

Rice Flour Poppyseed Cookies (naan-e berenji)
A middle eastern shortbread-like cookie flavoured with orange blossom water and poppyseeds. Super step-by-step photos. Check out this recipe for Rice Flour Butter Cookies from the same blog. (I'd up the rosewater to 3 tsp - I'm a freak for aromatic cookies.) Good stuff.

Nan-e Nokhodchi (Roasted Chickpea Four-Leaf Clover Cookies)
I LOVE these cookies, and like this recipe because of the easy directions, flavourings, and great photo. Here's another recipe for the same cookie made with half ghee and half oil, rather than all oil. (I prefer the addition of ghee, and the extra cardamom in this recipe.)

Gluten-Free Cardamom Shortbread
Here's a wonderful sounding treat, made with rice flour and inspired by Persian cookies. I'd increase the cardamom to at least 1/2 tsp.. I can't help it. ;)

Please share your favourite Persian and Middle Eastern cookie recipes in the comments. Happy festive baking!

Avocado Shakes & Smoothies for St. Patty's Day

March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's day! And now for some festive green fare :-) Here are some great sounding recipes for natural green shakes and smoothies made with avocados:

Avocado Smoothie - Great healthy all fruit recipe.
Avocado - Banana Shake - I love the sounds of this avocado-banana-yogurt combo.
Brazilian Avocado Shake - One could use milk and sugar substitutes in this delicious shake - I'm thinking almond milk and agave syrup, mmm...
Bravocado! Shake - This shake is sweetened with honey, and sounds absolutely divine. (Warning: loud music plays when you're on this page.)
Vietnamese Avocado Shake - Classic.
Avocado Shake with Boba - Similar to the classic Vietnamese shake, but with big tapioca pearls - fun!

Here are a couple of healthy green smoothies I enjoy regularly - sans avocado:

Magic Green Smoothie - Spirulina makes it stimulating, mineral-rich, and super-green.
Green Ginger Pineapple Smoothie - Super raw detox smoothie - great for alkalizing your system. Refreshing and delicious + packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and enzymes.

To cap things off, here's a strong vibrant-green antioxidant-rich cocktail: Matcha Martini

Enjoy :-)

Fat Tuesday!

February 5, 2008


New Orleans Mardi Gras maskers, c. 1915, scanned from old postcard. Note women carry whips to fend off any unwanted attentions. (Wikipedia)

It's Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, the last day of Carnival! I'm putting on something sparkly and frying up some pancakes tonight :-)

  • Festive pancake recipes:

Awesome Almond Buckwheat Pancakes - a personal favorite
Swedish Pancake - a lovely giant pancake you bake
Dee's Oatmeal Pancakes Recipe - these sound great
corn and bacon pancakes - yes, bacon in pancakes is awesome! (get oganic)
Oatmeal Bacon Pancakes - Irish recipe, sounds yummy

  • Pancakes for hardcore healthy eaters + gluten-free:

Super Pancakes (for one or more) - packed with nutritious filling whole grains
Carolyn's Breakfast Pancakes - "...we have had this breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past 2 years"
Protein Power Pancakes - quick easy gluten-free sugar-free breakfast for one
Gluten Free / Sugar Free / Lactose Free Pancakes - the name says it all
Delicious Gluten-Free Pancakes - this has great reviews

Festive Recipes from Favorite Blogs

December 17, 2007

Lovely nutty vegan confection - great for sweet carob lovers or those avoiding chocolate: Carob Nut Balls

Rich and beautifully flavored... Pine Nut Rosemary Shortbread

Some of my favorite flavour combos are in this beautiful (healthy!) candy: Aztec Chocolate Bark 

 

Festive Candied Peel

December 6, 2007


Two beautiful large organic navel oranges inspired me to make these superb candied peels~

Recipe: Candied Orange Peel

These turned out beautifully. Eating one little piece is a great pick-me-up. You can also dip these in dark chocolate (trés sophistiqué!) or use as a premium ingredient in another recipe...

Cinnamon Creamsicle Smoothie

December 4, 2007

Recipe: Cinnamon Creamsicle Smoothie

I love this smoothie. We drink them often in the fall and winter. It's like a festive creamsicle in a glass - without the cream, sugar, food coloring...
Carrot juice is what makes it extra tasty and extra healthy (note to people with kids: you can't taste the carrot juice!). I happen to LOVE carrots and the vitamin A boost they give :-)
 

Vanilla Walnut Shortbread Cookies...

January 9, 2007

I made somewhat traditional shortbread cookies over the holidays that went over very well. They were actually more like Mexican Wedding Cakes as they included a generous amount of ground nuts. The thing that made the cookies extra special was the large proportion of walnuts, the sweet cultured butter (butter made from fermented cream - popular in Europe), and the exquisite Mexican vanilla. The texture of these was beautiful as well: they literally melted-in-your-mouth.

Healthy?

Well, not exactly. These have a lot of butter, sugar, and refined wheat flour - though I'm sure they would taste great made with a fine whole spelt or wheat flour - or even possibly a gluten-free flour mix...

Cultured butter may be healthier than regular butter since it has lactic acid bacteria (from the fermentation), and almost no lactose. Cultured butter is also slightly higher in fat. I love the flavour of this type of "sweet" butter :-)

Walnuts are definitely healthy: very high in omega-3 fatty acids, high in Magnesium, and they help lower "bad" cholesterol.

Recipe: Walnut Shortbread Cookies

Panforte

December 22, 2006

Panforte cross-section
a chocolate version of the famous Italian fruitcake: Panforte

Yes - it's the holiday season. I've been busy making super-rich frighteningly tasty treats including my own version of the amazing sweet/spicy/chewy/bitter/nutty Italian cake/confection panforte (aka Sienna cake).

Some inspiring recipes for panforte:

I've read slightly different historical accounts of panforte - here's the Wikipedia's most recent write-up:

"Panforte is a traditional Italian dessert containing fruits and nuts, and resembling fruitcake or Lebkuchen. It may date back to 13th century Siena, in Italy's Tuscany region. Documents from 1205 show that Panforte was paid to the monks and nuns of a local monastery as a tax or tithe which was due on the seventh of February that year. Literally, Panforte means "strong bread" which refers to the spicy flavour. The original name of Panforte was "panpepato" (pepper bread), due to the strong pepper used in the cake. There are references to the Crusaders carrying Panforte, a durable confection, with them on their quests."

Currently there are many shops in Italy producing Panforte, each recipe being their jealously guarded interpretation of the original confection and packaged in distinctive wrapping. Usually a small wedge is served with coffee or a dessert wine after a meal, though some enjoy it with their coffee at breakfast."

(more history here)

ps - panforte is really really sweet so consume in moderation ;-)

lovely little poppy-seeds

December 14, 2006

Poppy-Seed
lovely little poppyseeds

I definitely have a thing for poppy-seeds. They taste great, look cool, and seem help me relax when I eat a lot of them... not sure why ;-)

These famous/infamous little seeds seem to pop up around the winter season in traditional Eastern European foods. One dish that I've had the pleasure of eating is Kutya (also Kutia): a traditional sweet Ukrainian (and Russian, Eastern Orthodox) dish eaten on Christmas Eve for good luck and fertility. It's basically cooked wheat with honey, ground poppy-seeds, nuts, and sometimes dried fruit. It's so tasty and satisfying that I crave it year-round!

Recipes: KUTYA, Ukrainian Christmas Kutya ( Kutia)
And here's a Lithuanian recipe for Poppy-Seed Milk (dairy-free!)

poppy