Tarte aux fraises

A belated Saint Patricks

Did you know Saint Patrick wasn't even Irish....

I'm working on perfecting this mint soft serve recipe to my liking. It began as mint chocolate chip I find chunks of chocolate in my ice cream somewhat unsatisfying. They just don't melt well in your mouth.

I'm trying to find some real mint extract or figure out how to make it as I think it will make this recipe even better.

The Recipe:

3- 1/4 Cups Milk or a combination of Milk and Creamer (not from a cow)

2 Tablespoons Arrowroot Powder

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 -1.5 Teaspoons Mint Extract

Green Food Coloring (optional)

In medium saucepan over high heat combine sugar and 3 cups milk

In a bowl combine arrowroot powder and remaining 1/4 cup milk

Once the milk sugar mixture has come to a boil, remove from heat immediately and stir it arrowroot-milk mixture

Let cool

Once the mixture has cool to at lead room temperature (colder works better) stir in vanilla, mint and green food coloring if desired. (I find that there is a psychological component regarding the greenness of my mint ice cream)

Place in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions

Nachos

After being vegan for a little over four years, I now find cheese quite revolting. Seldom am I able to walk by the cheese section at Whole Foods without covering my nose and when someone sits next to me with their bowl of spaghetti slathered in smellycruelstolenfromacalf parmesan cheese, it is enough to make me loose my appetite.

I am, however, a fan of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternatives. (You have to be careful with some of the vegan cheese alternatives out there as some can be pretty nasty). I do not eat vegan cheese often so perfectly melted cheese atop some corn chips was quite a treat.

Rum Truffles

The creation of these truffles is quite unique in the sense that involve the use of cake crumbs.
These truffles were kind of like a fudgy cake cake ball. I say without any hesitation that these were appropriate for the gods.

Recipe: Rum Truffles

(Ingredients are approximate and adjusting them to your own liking is best...)

8 oz Chocolate

1/4 Cup Milk (not from a cow)

2 Tablespoons Margarine

1-1/2 Cups Cake Crumbs

1 Tablespoon Dark Rum (or more or less)

Keep in mind that the cake is a major component of the truffles and so a good cake will most likely make good truffles. I recommend using a recipe from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan- any that I've tried have turned out well.

The 8 oz of chocolate is also a pretty important part. If you're going to use high quality dark rum, do the rum some justice and pair it with some good chocolate. I highly recommend using Tropical Source.

To make the truffles:

Place chocolate in heatproof bowl

Combine non-cow milk and margarine in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring often

When it comes to a boil, remove from heat and pour over chocolate

Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth

Stir in rum and then cake crumbs

Add cake crumbs until you can easily form balls from the truffle mixture

To top off the truffles you could always roll them in more chocolate

Other options include (but are not limited to)

Colored sugars

Powdered Sugar

Cocoa Powder

The truffles keep best in the refrigerator on wax paper

(This is only necessary if you can control the urge to eat them all)

Taco Sandwich

Lately all I've felt like eating is Mexican food and grapefruits. A strange combination I know. I love going out for Mexican food but sometimes it's nice to make it yourself because everything can be just the way you like it.

Last weekend, in the midst of a strange mood, I made my first ever taco sandwich. It's probably one of the simplest delicacies in my world.

You start with two tostadas (I prefer home made) and layer beans, roasted vegetables letuce, rice, tomatoes, avocodo, cilantro and lots of salsa.

You can either it it like a sandwich or take your fork and make a violent dive into the center. I prefer the later.

I'm excited for summer and the fresh salsa ingredients it will bring. I think I'll just live on salsa all summer long. Peach Salsa.

Red

My brother received a camera for his birthday. Needless to say, he has explored its capabilities far more than I have with my camera. (I usually discover things by accident). Apparently my camera has many of the same features as his so he showed me a thing or two.

Vita Cafe

A Wednesday afternoon adventure, upon which, I had every intention of eating vegan crepes as a "cultural experience", ended up at Vita Cafe in northeast PDX on Alberta. Vita offers a plethora of vegan and vegetarian options. I enjoyed the soup of the day: white bean vegetable with house special onion-herb bread, which I have to say was quite a treat. The soup complemented the emotions of the day nicely as I sat by the lage storefront window, eating not soup and looking out onto Alberta as the rain fell peacefully from the sky.

Vita has huge vegan and gluten-free cakes, for which I will be returning (amongst other things)

Foliage

I recently discovered the foliage setting on my camera and though I'd share the flowers I recieved last week on Valentines Day. The boquet is mainly composed of roses and lillies. I never knew lillies smelt so amazing! I enjoy flowers most when they're growing wildly in fields yet there's something about recieving flowers that really makes you feel special.

If only lime trees grew outside my window...

...I would create the most lovely lime juice concentration and offer lime daiquiris to the people of the streets. Unfortuanetely my current location is not overly accomodating of lime growth so store bought limes and concentrate will have to suffice.

Lime daiquiris are simple to prepare yet quite satisfying none the less.

Lime Daiquiri (single)

10-15 ice cubes

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup rum

3 TBL lime concentrate

A lime

________________

Chop ice in blender

Blend in run and lime concentrate

Slice 1/2 the lime and place in glass

Pour in daiquiri and sqeeze in the juice from the remaining lime half

Bread: The Free World

On a coldsnowyslushyicydesolatedark night, the kind in which old men curse when they walk outside to find their car covered in stubborn snow, my man friend and I ventured to the old Italian district in Northern Boston.

We really had no solid ideals for the evening, simply experience the old Italian District, make an attempt for continual warmth. Our evenings were made, however, when we came upon large garbage bins of bread, baguette-like, though obviously not since we were in the Italian district. Though not warm, the bread was still soft and most likely had been made in the last 24 hours.

We took as many loaves as our arms could carry, but had to leave most of it behind.

Bo Thai

Bo Thai was yet another result of a random excursion, however this time it took place on the other side of the country. What started out as a trek in search of a vegan restaurant located somewhere in Allston ended at a warm and very pleasing Thai restaurant.

My man friend and I walked nearly and hour in the darkness of the Boston night, searching for a vegan restaurant that just didn't appeal once we arrived. We opted for Bo Thai instead and were quite satisfied.

With only three tables, Bo Thai caters greatly to the take-out and delivery community. Though the menu contained non-vegan items, the women said that most of their customers were vegan and that the vast majority of the menu could be veganized.

We ordered a number of items including Tom Yum (hot and sour soup), sweet and sour vegetable stir fry, cashew nut stir fry with vegetables and tofu and fresh spring rolls.

The Tom Yum Soup was just what we needed (and more) to warm us from the cold night. It contained a great deal of chili spice which made it's presence even more well known with each swallow.

Sweet and Sour Vegetable Stir Fry with Rice

Cashew Nut Stir Fry with Vegetables, Tofu and Rice

1369 Coffee House

1369 seems to be quite popular amongst Cambridge locals. It's a great place to go and drink quality coffee, meet a friend, settle into a great book or simply people watch. During my visit to 1369, there happened to be a man who sat drawing a pair of people who sat tables away.

The coffee was unique to any I have had previously in life. I want to say there was almost a saltiness to my soy mocha but I hesitate to do so as I am still becoming a coffee connoisseur and am afraid I cannot yet adequately talk knowledgeably about coffee. Simply stated though, the atmosphere and mocha created by 1369 contributed to the loveliness of the day.

San Francisco: El Balazo

In its myriad of brightness, El Balazo is hard to miss. It's one of the many treasures of Haight street in San Franciso, with its gourmet yet simple menu of authentic mexican food. I

feel lucky to have randomly come upon it when looking for a place to stop for lunch.

El Balazo caters to a plethora of types. I was quite impressed by their selection of tortilla bowls for my vegetarian taco salad. I had the opportunity to choose from spinach, white or whole wheat. They layered it with rice, beans (choice of pinto or black beans), lettuce, sir fried veggies which included zucchini and mushrooms, salsa and guacamole. I was quite satisfied to say the least.

My taco salad was paired with tortilla chips and cabbage salad on the side (both homeade), and equally as delicious.

Cinnamon Rolls

I have not had cinnamon rolls since before I went vegan and it has been worth the wait.
They're my sister's creation with a little help from The Joy of Vegan Baking.
She filled them with a concoction of walnuts, cinnamon, brown sugar and vegan butter and dressed them with a rich vanilla icing.

Note: The pictures do not do justice to the reality of goodness felt by my taste buds this morning while eating one for breakfast.

Soup: Roasted Butternut in broth of Coconut Milk

If I could, I would eat homemade vegan soup every day for lunch and dinner. (Soup for breakfast weirds me out) I'd dedicate an entire blog to soup.

One of the greatest things about soup is that it is so versatile. Often times, it's best when unplanned: you have something in the refrigerator (squash in this case) that needs to be used so you spontaneously make some soup of it.

This soup was made using the Roasted Butternut Squash recipe from Vegan World Fusion. It has a coconut broth and is spiced with a hint of cumin. It's great for a cold, drizzling day because not only does the soup's warmness neat your body and soul but the spices leave their heat within long after being consumed.

Like Girl Scouts - only better

I've been wanting to make these Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Cookies for quite some time and finally had the chance now that finals are over and break has begun.

I used this caramel recipe instead and it worked out fine. The cookies were ridiculously messy and absolutely delicious.

Would you like some Apple with your Caramel?

Yet another dorm-style creation- I wouldn't recommend using plastic forks as sticks unless you absolutely have to.
The whole process was actually pretty low maintenance, easy and a lot of fun. I didn't have a candy thermometer so used a caramel recipe that didn't require one. The recipe calls for one cup of the sweetened condensed milk. I used the recipe provided for the sweetened condensed milk but added all of it to the caramel mixture which worked well.
Toppings may include chocolate sauce, pretzels (my favorite), walnuts etc. I encourage you to be creative.

Needums: I guess its a Maine thing...

My neighbor from the east coast recently introduced me to a Maine delicacy.

Not only are needums delicious, they're also a simple and extremely low maintenace treat to create.

Simply combine potatoes, sugar and cocount and you've got goodness. Traditionally they're cut into squares and dipped in chocolate... however she did it dorm style in which there's no double broiler in sight and the closest thing to a jelly roll pan is a disposable pie plate.

Winter Flowers

Camp Food

As a pre-orientation to college, I participated in an environmental service project with 12 amazing people. We lived together for 9 days in the depths of a temperate rainforest, 9 miles in, camping along the Hoh River in Northern Washington state. In addition to the amazing people the trip involved some amazing trees, sunsets and food!

Towards the end of the trip we were left with an assortment of miscelaneous items: 6 tubes of pesto, one onion, a few peppers, lots of spices, tomato sauce, oil and bread in crumbles. The bread crumbs were lighly stir fried and spiced. Meanwhile, the onion and peppers were chopped and sauteed oil. The pesto and tomato sauce was added until hot and then served over the bread crumbs. MSR Dragonfly stoves were used as heating agents while rocks were used as cutting boards.

One of the planned meals was a Thai dish that was really quite simple but wonderful. Rice noodles were cooked and then stirfried in a lightly spiced curry sauce with cashews.