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Vegan Agave Sweetened Chocolate Frosting. And Other Things I Eat.

February 1, 2012

I ate a sheep. It was the most delicious sheep, complete with a raspberry heart in the middle. Felt like such a carnivore.

Went to Boa for husband's birthday dinner. This is French onion soup in dim lighting. It was fabulous, but how can you screw up hot cheese?

Next up was tableside Caesar salad on chilled plates. Perfection. Spicy! Holy garlic. Glad we both ate it.

My entree. Spaghetti and Kobe meatballs. Tasted like spaghetti and meatballs. A little bummed, but I can only blame myself for ordering spaghetti and meatballs from a steakhouse. I was really tired.

Husband's steak. He got the strip. I told him to get the ribeye, but he didn't want to deal with a bone. Next time, he'll get the ribeye. This was decent, but a little tough and not super flavorful.

Dairy-free, agave sweetened chcolate cake for husband. I'm way better at frosting than cake. Cake was dry. Frosting was epic. Think maybe I need to use grapeseed oil instead of coconut oil in cakes. Any advice?

The frosting was epic.

Curious about Boa? Food was good, but not life-changing. Service was great. Ambiance was dated. Do I think we’d go back? I don’t know.

Here’s the frosting I whipped up:

Vegan Agave Chocolate Frosting

1 tub Whipped Earth Balance

1 cup agave

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Dumped it all in the stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whipped it until light and fluffy, about five minutes. Stopped periodically to scrape down the sides and make sure everything was getting incorporated.

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Two Lunchy Salads

January 25, 2012

Warm Chickpea Salad with Cumin Seeds

 

Recipe inspiration here. Of course I played with it a little. Can’t help it.

 

Green Israeli Couscous Salad

 

This is my client’s current favorite dish. Make you some.

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Vegan Gluten-Free Raspberry Chocolate Tart

January 23, 2012

Thanks, Ian, for letting mama get her bake on today…love you.

Golden almond crust.

For the filling.

Just a touch for the berries.

Thickened.

Chocolate never hurts.

A little summer in winter.

Recipe adapted from dear Jenna at Eat, Live, Run. I have long admired.

Crust

2 cups almond meal

3 T honey

1 T melted coconut oil

1/4th t salt

Filling

1 cup berry juice, divided

1 cup frozen raspberries

1 cup fresh raspberries

2 T cornstarch

1/3 cup agave

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

1 T coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine almond meal, honey, oil, and salt. Mix with fingers until it’s crumbly. Press into a greased tart pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of the berry juice, the frozen berries, and agave. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup of juice and cornstarch. Whisk until smooth, then whisk mixture into the cooked berries and cook, stirring often, until mixture has thickened, maybe five minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the fresh raspberries carefully, leaving berries intact.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and coconut oil. Heat for 20 seconds at a time, stirring until just melted. Pour onto crust and spread about. Refrigerate for ten minutes so chocolate can set a bit.

Pour berry mixture over crust and let set in fridge for a few hours before serving. Can serve cold or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

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Vegan Banana Bread

January 12, 2012

I’m anxiously awaiting my doula client’s birth. This was my dream last night:

She was in labor, and I was in labor, too. We were both at my house.

I wanted my baby to be born into a pot of my homemade carrot soup (don’t worry, it was at room temperature). Then, I wanted my sister to pour Honey Bunches Of Oats over the baby.

No, I was not planning on eating the baby. I thought it would make for a peaceful, cozy birth experience.

Holla.

I’m making my clients some extra food this week. As I type, I’m smelling garlicky pot roast simmering away that I will deliver in a few hours, along with a sun dried tomato and feta Israeli couscous salad, and this:

I had to write down this recipe so I can Pin it so I don’t have to have my laptop in order to access it.

Vegan Banana Bread

1/4 cup almond milk (or nondairy milk of choice-coconut milk is lovely, too)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3 ripe bananas

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Rub a loaf pan with oil.

Mix together the soy milk and vinegar; set aside for about 2 minutes.

Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Beat together the oil and the brown sugar, then beat in the bananas – you can mash them ahead of time or let the paddle attachment of the stand mixer do the work for you. I just chunked the bananas in with the oil & sugar and beat them that way. Continue beating on high until very light. Reduce speed to low and add milk/vinegar mixture. By hand, stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture, being careful not to overbeat. I like stirring flour mixture in with a heavy duty scraper.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for about 15 minutes then flip from pan.

This recipe is so good my clients are paying me extra to bring another loaf to them mid-week. You’re welcome.

In Ian news, dad was salty so he got some serious lovin’. Kinda awkward but awfully cute.

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The Six, True Food Kitchen, Movies, & Walks

December 30, 2011

Date afternoon. You can tell because I'm wearing my pearls, courtesy of husband's friend and mentor. Thanks again, Suzanne! They're stunning.

At The Six, with husband. We had a little wine.

I liked the vibe of The Six a lot. No Gjelina or Tasting Kitchen pretense, with a very similar menu. Lots of mention of farm eggs and bacon and roasted things and fancy pizza and mac and cheese.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Port, and Mustard. The best dish we had. Easy. Full of flavor, which is very important to me.

White Bean Cassoulet with Farm Egg and Parmesan. Bland. Squash was undercooked. Also was served so hot you couldn't taste anything. Loved the presentation.

Short Rib Pot Pie. Rib was cooked perfectly, but again lacked flavor. Puff pastry crust was yummy!

Parmesan Truffle Fries. Not a drop of truffle flavor. Mealy. We hardly touched them, and that says a lot consdering they were fried and had cheese on them.

Chocolate Hazelnut Bread Pudding. Kind of awesome and kind of weird. Was ice cold in the middle, but had been pan fried quickly so was nice and crusty and pleasantly oily on the outside. Nice chocolate and nuts, but had weird slices of banana that was light purple in color (?). Banana added nothing to the dish and wasn't mentioned so would be an unpleasant surprise to a non-banana person.

The Six. It’s funny, overall we had issues with all but one of the dishes, but I would go back. I liked it there. It felt comfortable, even though the food was far from perfect. I would go back somewhere that felt authentic and friendly where the food was flawed before I’d go back to a place with outstanding food made by assholes.

Movies after lunch. Started watching The Artist. Left after ten minutes for fear that the entire thing would be silent and we would die of boredum. Saw The Descendants instead and thought it was very meh. Maybe I'm not into movies anymore, although I totally want to see Monsieur Lazhar and Pina.

Roasted Kale, Onion, & Garlic Pizza from True Food Kitchen. Spaced on the no cheese thing. Ate the kale and took the tomatoey bread home to make into something else involving cheese.

Mom and I enjoyed a girl’s only afternoon at the new Santa Monica Place. We lunched at True Food Kitchen, which I’ve been wanting to try, and we had a wonderful experience. Friendly, accessible menu, casual, spirited ambiance, and really thoughtful food. Might hit it up again real soon with husband and babe.

Roasted Tomato and Olive Pizza from TFK. Delicious. I loved this place!

Ricotta and Squash Ravioli with Mushroom Broth. Fabulous. Perfectly seasoned. Perfect portion. A+

Ended the day going for a long walk with grandpa and babe to enjoy the last of the Christmas lights. Doesn't get any better.

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Christmasness

December 27, 2011

Husband's noir Christmas breakfast. Asaigo toasted bagel with herbed cream cheese, shaved purple onion, lox and tomato, with a side of scrambled eggs and bacon. I cooked my ass off for like three days...

 

This is what $164 of meat looks like. Organic prime rib. Too bad I couldn't figure out how to carve it.

 

Something green.

 

Mashed Yukon's with garlic.

 

Ye olde Spiced Yams. Never gets olde.

 

Cornbread stuffing. Yes. Stick of butter...

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake, before the toffee sauce was poured on. Mom called it, "Heaven in a bowl."

 

Christmas walk in Venice.

 

Merry merry.

 

Whew. It’s been a big few days since the grandparents arrived from Michigan. A whirlwind of cooking, I whipped up Christmas Even dinner, Christmas breakfast, Christmas dinner, then went right in to client cooking Monday and Tuesday. Plus Ian’s been up multiple times during the night, so I feel like I haven’t quite relaxed and been able to just enjoy having my folks here.

I’m getting there, though. Client food was completed this afternoon and the rest of the week will be about  sneaking some alone time with my mom, with husband, and with myself at some point! Want to go to a yoga class really bad…

Ian’s been super sweet and happy even though he’s still congested. He’s been waking up a lot at night, and between his cold symptoms and the fact that our house is very exciting these days, I’m not surprised. Means less sleep at night for us, but I’m trying not to stress about it and hope that when our normal routine resumes he will have an easier time sleeping through the night.

His first birthday is Sunday. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around that one. He’s gonna get some gluten free, sugar free blueberries and cream cupcakes, and we’re gonna get champagne. Pop!

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