I am finally in holiday and cookie baking mode. The temperature has dropped to about 20-somethingºF here, and all I want to do is hibernate and bake (and eat) indulgent things, and order christmas presents online. My decorations are slowing making their way out of storage, and I am well stocked with wrapping paper, tape, and little boxes to hand out all of the extra cookies I am going to be baking this year.
It's no secret, I am a little in love with the chocolate - hazelnut - almond butter combo. I'll take it any which way I can get it. In the form of a smoothie, a cake, or even these guys that I made recently, but now that I am in the holiday baking mode, I think it is most appropriate that I use my favorite sweet ingredients for cookies.
I love a GOOD cookie. I have a habit (and you might too) where once or twice a week, I sit down with a cookie and a cup of coffee at about 4:00 in the afternoon. It's my little treat to myself. When I indulge, I like all kinds of cookies, from crunchy chocolate chip, to super soft oatmeal raisin, but my favorite kind of cookie is one that is super tasty with a little bit of the guilt shaved off. Guilt in the form of loads of refined sugar and butter. I love to feel like I am being bad without actually being that bad.
This cookie, is that cookie.
These thumbprint cookies are full of crunch and flavor, all sort of things that are good and nothing that is bad. They are made without refined flours and sugars and butter, just a short list of wholesome ingredients like ground hazelnut flour, maple syrup, coconut oil, cacao, and of course, almond butter (yum).
I like to think of these cookies as a really tasty vehicle for shoveling almond butter + chocolate into my mouth.
I just spent the past week in Paris, which is quite possibly my favorite city in the world. I definitely warmed up my appetite for Thanksgiving this week.
My favorite thing about Paris is of course the food. It is pretty hard to have a bad meal there. Although, a true Parisian might disagree, but my experience has always been that the food anywhere you go there is either good, great, or exceptional. I had tons of recommendations from friends and fellow bloggers, and although they led me to many wonderful places, I realized that there was so much good food to discover, you almost didn't need many recommendations. It is sometimes more fun to discover places by chance.
Even though I always enjoy the food in Paris or any country I visit, I do not typically eat the way that I did the last week. Croissants for breakfast, french onion soup and french fries for lunch … and seeking out a pastry and espresso in-between each meal. You will not find kale on any menu in Paris, and part of me likes it that way. I enjoy being places very different from where I live, but now I am ready to get back to my (much healthier) routine .... well ..... after Thanksgiving, of course.
I am sure that potatoes and brussels sprouts will find their way to your table this Thanksgiving and probably a few more times before the end of the year. Originally, I was thinking of making some kind of hash recipe for a side dish that included both sprouts and potatoes, however, it's been a while since I've had a latke and when I brought out all of these ingredient to make a hash, the latke light bulb went off.
Maybe it was also my subconscience telling me to post this recipe this week. By complete chance, I also realized that it is Hanukkah this week, which I do not celebrate, but my friends who do might just be eating latkes. This dish is the perfect hybrid dish for the hybrid holiday this year.
If you're not celebrating anything this week, you can also enjoy these for lunch or dinner maybe with some greens, or over a salad. Or, you can do what I did, and eat these for breakfast with a poached egg on top, since for me, anytime is a fine time for a brussel sprout latke.
If you've been hanging around these parts for some time now, you've probably heard all about my Thanksgiving family tradition.
It's around this time of year that I have a lot of conversations that go a little like this:
Person: "Thanksgiving is coming up ... I bet it's your favorite holiday, I bet you already have your menu planned."
Me: "Ummm, not exactly."
Person: "Oh stop. I bet you love to cook for everyone on Thanksgiving."
Me: "Ummm, no. Not really. Actually, we are going out to eat for Thanksgiving. We've been doing it for the past few years and I love it. I love to have someone else do the cooking, and I looooove that I do not have to do the dishes."
Person: *totally perplexed*
I have this same conversation about 10 time between October up until Thanksgiving, and I can completely understand the confused reaction I sometimes get. Every year I go through the ... I miss cooking for Thanksgiving, I am going to cook again this year ... and then I run it by Michael and he swiftly changes my mind. The truth is, we really enjoy going out with our family on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving for me over the past few years has become a holiday where me and the fam get spoiled. Someone else does the cooking, someone else scoops an extra serving of stuffing onto my plate, someone else makes an apples pie from scratch, and someone else gets to run the dishwasher more than one time during the day. I get to relax, my family members get to relax, and we get to enjoy some really good food that someone else made. I love it.
Even though I am not cooking this year, that does not mean I will not share a few things that would be on my menu if I was cooking. This colorful dish would definitely be on the menu.
In the past when I have cooked, I like to keep things simple and traditional, but I also like to modernize classic dishes. My definition of modernize in the kitchen is all about using less processed ingredients, less butter, less ...... marshmellows.
This is a healthy, colorful dish that combines broccoli and cauliflower, two vegetables that you would normally find on a Thanksgiving table. Tahini and pomegranates are not ingredients that are normally found on a more traditional Thanksgiving table, but I think once they make their debut, they will be a welcomed addition.
Pomegranate seeds have that wonderful pop that adds an ever so slight bit of tart sweetness. They also add a festive, colorful tone to the dish. The tahini adds a creamy element without adding cream. This side dish won't leave you feeling overindulged.
This takes about 20 minutes to prep and cook, so it is the perfect, easy addition to a big meal. You can also pre-cook the broccoli and cauliflower in the cast iron pan, and wait to put it in the oven to warm up right before you are ready to serve.
Purple cauliflower used to be somewhat of an anomaly, but recently I've been seeing it everywhere. Grocery stores, farmers markets, sometimes it has taken the place of white cauliflower all together. I hope it is as easy for you to find as it was for me. While it has the same flavor as the white, it really make the colors in this dish explode off the plate.
I am still on a bit of a sage binge, but now I have turned it's attention to dessert. Not just any dessert. One of my all-time favorite comfort deserts, one that I make over and over this time of year.
I've also been kind of obsessed with the idea of making a dessert in a jar. I've seen apple pie in a jar, and I always thought that it had a bit of a fun and wow factor rather than just serving as it normally would be.
Years ago, when we first started dating, Michael took me on a date to this fancy place that cooked and served everything in mason jars. I loved it, he totally impressed me with that one. I am a sucker for food things that are interesting and different (even if a bit gimmicky).
When they came over to serve our food, the waiter carrier over an uber-hot jar with some sort of tong holder thing (just like those ones you would use for canning) and then he spooned it from the jar onto the plate. They cooked the food low and slow in those jars, and the results were quite delicious. That place has since closed, and I have yet to find anywhere that does something similar. Such a unique idea. Things in jars are always more fun.
I’ve been brainstorming about my dessert in a jar for weeks now, and I've been craving a good apple crisp. Apple crisp is so much easier to thorw together than a pie, but it is just as satisfying … sometimes more. Alternate layers of crisp and apple is how a crisp should be. Equal part crispy goodness, equal part sweet apple yum.
Serving them in a jar is fun because adds a bit of interaction if you have guests. It also has a practical element because you can make them ahead, put a lid on them, and save them until you are ready to bake/eat. If you're having a party, I would pre-bake it, that way you can pop them in the oven shortly before you're ready to serve. Just be sure that if you are serving them to your guests in the jar that they are cool enough to touch, or else you'll need to provide some sort of oven mitt or heat proof towel for them to spoon it out. Better yet, it's probably better if you bring it over to their plate spoon it out for them. I'm sure they'd be impressed.
Before you ask, I am going to answer the question that might be burning in your brain, which is …. No, these jars are not going to explode all over your oven. I promise. I’ll admit, I was a tinge nervous putting them into the oven that I was going to have a mess of glass and crisp all over the place, but I've done it a few times, and everything was fine. You MUST use canning jars for this, because canning jars were made to take the heat. They are made to withstand boiling water which means they can easily withstand the heat of a 350º oven.
This recipe is for a basic, vegan, gluten-free crisp which you have probably seen around before. The sage mingles so well with apples, if you love sage feel free to add as much as you like. You can also experiment with different crisp combinations in these jars. I think pears with be great, or if you want to get crazy and more savory, go for some butternut squash.
The only thing I will not negotiate with you is the ice cream. It is a must. I always use a dairy-free coconut based vanilla, but any type or flavor that you like will do just fine. A crisp is not a crisp without the cold melty ice cream to go with it.
I live a little less than a mile from the Union Square Greenmarket, which, if you're not familiar, is an open-air farmers market in NYC that is open a few days out of the week. It's where I get most of my produce.
On Mondays, I strap on some comfy shoes, grab my reusable bags, and walk (or bike) over there with my list of produce for the week. I've been doing this for several months now, so I have started to know the market well, along with some of the vendors and farmers. I have my routine down and my favorite stops.
Mondays have become my favorite day because the market is slightly less crowded in the early morning, and a couple of my favorite vendors are there on that day. One place has quickly become my #1 favorite, because they're organic produce is some of the best looking, and they always have have fun things like watercress micro greens and romanesco cauliflower.
The other day, I picked up a gorgeous head of broccoli and several cauliflower heads from them, and as I was checking out I had a little conversation with a woman who runs the farm. She told me how hard it was to organically grow broccoli and cauliflower and that in order to keep them safe from little critters without spraying them, she (herself) would go around and pick off little munching caterpillars and bugs by hand.
Really? Wow. Awesome. That's some serious dedication.
I told her that there were no words to express how much I appreciated that. I thanked her and walked away feeling grateful that there are people out there, like this lady, who care so much about the quality of food that they provide for people. She rocks.
Cauliflower has been on my grocery list pretty much every week since the Fall came around. I cannot seem to get enough of it. But this soup was not originally about the cauliflower. It actually started with the sage.
Last weekend before making my market list, I had harvested the last of the herbs from my garden - half to be frozen to use in smoothies, and the other half I was going to dry. But as I was cutting my herbs, I realized I had so much sage. So much. Probably because I hardly used sage in the summer, but now the sage needed my love.
I've beena little obsessive with the sage over the past week. Sage with roasted vegetables, sage in salad, fried sage. Yes, fried sage. It sounds un-healthy, but it really is not. Lightly frying sage just makes it a crispy and flaky and mellows out the sage-ness, so it goes really well over soups and salads.
When it comes to soup and most other things, I like lots of toppings. I love the contrast in tastes and textures. Every bite is something different, so it keeps things interesting. This soup has a lot of toppings, starting with that insanely tasty fried sage. You can add more or less depending on your tastes, but I'd err on the side of more. You'll be happy you did.
Cauliflower, sage, and hazelnuts are all such signature tastes of Fall, when you put them together, it's like a Fall explosion. They were all meant to be, together, in one big bowl, especially around this time of year.
Okay, I have roasted my first butternut squash and unpacked my sweater box, I am finally ready for Fall now. Actually, I have already roasted three butternut squashes, so I guess I am in full Fall mode.
I had a version of this salad at one of my favorite restaurants recently, and ever since then I have recreated it a few times, a few different ways, and this way right here is the winner.
This site is no stranger to marinated kale salad, and I would like to think that I have a small arsenal of kale salad favorites for each season. This fig and butternut squash combination is my current favorite Fall version. It’s easy to throw together if you have guests coming over, and it is a fun combination that some might not expect.
I used to be one of those "I don't do fruit in salad" people. But, as you can see here and here, I guess I can no longer claim to be one of those people. As long as the sweetness of the fruit's purpose is to balance out the savory, I am all about fruit in my salad. Especially this salad.
Recently, the best place to find me would be standing in front of my refrigerator with a spoon in a jar of almond butter. This is new to me. I've officially crossed over to the dark side. Please tell me you've been there too.
This love for almond butter crept up on me slowly until it became a full-blown obsession. Now, my day is not complete without a scoop of almond or peanut butter in my mouth.
I've been trying to come up with different ways to feed my all my AB/PB cravings. I'll have a scoop of it over some banana after a workout, I smear it over some apples for a mid-day snack, I make it in a smoothie with cacao and mint and have it for breakfast, and I eat it straight out of the jar .... oh sorry, I've already mentioned that.
I've been trying to come up with another way that I can devour my favorite treat, and I decided I wanted something that incorporated not just almond butter, but my favorite things to eat with my almond butter.
I thought about dipping bananas into some sort of almond butter chocolate concoction, then I thought, sure that would be great, but how often am I going to make that. Then, the light bulb went off. I can just blend everything together and make fun little bite sized snack things. Simple. Easy. Yes!
You know what is awesome about these bites? I can eat them for breakfast and I pretend like I am being really bad, but actually I am being really really good. Give me one of these little bites over a muffin any day of the week. In fact, give me 7. These also make awesome snacks, as well as dessert that you can bring over to a friend's house. Loaded with vitamins and antioxidants, this could be one of the healthiest and tastiest little bites you will ever put in your mouth.
Be sure to adjust any ingredients depending on the amount that you are going to eat out of the jar/blender.