When you are in the mood for chocolate and decide to make something chocolaty, why not make it double?!
So deciding on double chocolate cookies was a no-brainer!
I was at Keg and Case’s outdoor farmer’s market a few weekends ago, and I found something interesting!
This one said “vintage Merlot Fusion Salt” and I had to take it home with me.
Well, look at the color!
So pretty.
It looked great on my cookies too.
I recently had turmeric cake from a Lebanese deli, called Zakia Deli, and I fell in love with the flavor combination: turmeric, anise, and sesame seeds.
These turned out great.
Crunchy outside, chewy inside, and super flavorful!!
At our house, I’m the one who typically go wild about exotic spices, but it was my husband who raved about these cookies!
Turmeric Anise Sesame Cookies; adapted from Ms. Isa Chandra’s recipe – makes about a dozen
1/4 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/8 cup soy milk
1/2 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
turmeric powder
ground star anise
sesame seeds
1. Combine and mix all the ingredients except for sesame seeds.
2. Roll the dough into balls and flatten them. Sprinkle sesame seeds and press them.
3. Bake in the oven at 350F for about 8 minutes.
When non-vegan friend invites us to her house for home-made vegan dinner, I make sure I bring the dessert that will surely please her.
I know she likes chocolate, and based on my dining experience with her, I don’t think she particularly likes anything flour-dense.
So I thought flourless chocolate cake would be a good choice, and I found a perfect recipe!
I’ve made several things with Amy’s recipes, and I’ve never been disappointed.
And this was not an exception!
I used strong home-brewed coffee and brandy to add some mocha flavor.
It turned out delicious!!
I served it with vanilla soy ice cream.
We also tried it with roasted nuts, and that was awesome too!
Did our non-vegan friend like it?
Oh yes, she did!!
Do you want to know why these are named “Paris Scones”?
I’m a big fan of Harney & Sons tea.
Delicious blends.
And the tins!
I don’t know what to do with it, but I’m keeping this tin after I finish the tea.
When I first saw this, I was intrigued.
It just says “Paris”.
What does “Paris” tea taste like???
When I opened the tin, it was Paris.
I’ve been to Paris only once and it was a long time ago.
But if someone told me that this is what Paris smells like, I would believe it.
It’s sweet, handsome, and sophisticated.
These may not be the typical words to describe a smell, but they came to my mind first.
The tea was delicious, but I thought it would make wonderful scones.
And I was right.
The combination of the Paris tea and freeze-dried blueberries was as amazing as I had hoped it would be.
I quickly made V butter because I wanted to make sure I had fresh butter when the scones were ready.
Love, love, love.
I love you, Paris.
I try not to make too many sweets, because if I have them around, I eat them until they are gone.
But craving for sweets does come once in a while, and when it does, I want to eat quality sweets, which often means “homemade” instead of something from bags.
These Pink Himalayan Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies were delicious!!
Luckily, there were a few family get-togethers, and I got to share them with others, which kept me from over-eating.
(Although I was sad when I realized that I don’t have them around anymore. )
The rhubarb season arrived suddenly.
I didn’t remember exactly their season is.
But I was visiting my mother-in-law last week, and when she told me to go to her backyard and pick some up, I thought it was a bit early for rhubarb (or any vegetables/fruits) to be ready to be harvested in Minnesota.
But there they were!
I really had fun pulling them out of the ground.
I fell on my butt every time I pulled a stalk out (lol).
The first thing I made with this fresh rhubarb was rhubarb blueberry brownies.
When my mother-in-law gave us the rhubarb, she also gave me a few jars that I can use to put jam in.
One of them had a lid that said “blueberry rhubarb jam.”
She told me that she had bought the jam from a local vendor last year, and she really liked it.
So I wanted to make something with the combination so that I could bring some to our mother’s day family get-together.
This brownie is chocolaty, heavy, dense, and fudgy, exactly the way I like.
It’s packed with rhubarb, blueberries, and chocolate chips.
This turned out absolutely delicious!
Not just delicious for vegan food (I stopped saying this a long time ago, but I decided to mention this in case some readers are curious.), but delicious, period.
Definitely too delicious for my husband and I to stay away from.
Yes I overate.
But oh, my, this was good.
I’ve been wanting to make mini bundt cake for a while.
But I couldn’t decide which pans to get.
A few weeks ago I finally found something I liked.
This is from Pampered Chef.
The back has the beautiful teal color.
The cake was flavored with vanilla and cardamom.
Lemon glaze.
Freeze-dried raspberries.
Thyme.
I struggled a little to get my batter right, and the resulting texture is a bit different from what I initially anticipated.
But the cake was delicious!
I was going to have a few bites to taste-test, and then I couldn’t stop eating until the whole cake was gone!
I took a little break from posting foods with kiwi, but here is another one.
Kiwi bread.
This surprisingly turned out well and maintained the refreshing kiwi flavor.
Since my husband doesn’t like banana bread, I may make it again next time I have craving for this type of quick bread.
I used this recipe as a base, and veganized it. I also decreased the amount of sugar.
This is the BEST ice cream I’ve ever eaten.
It’s ridiculously good.
My husband has been making ice cream quite regularly the past several months.
This was rather created by accident.
He wanted to make peanut butter ice cream, but we were out of peanut butter.
So he decided to do with sunflower seed butter which we happened to have in the fridge.
I am so thankful this happened because otherwise we would never have known how awesomely sunflower seed butter works for ice cream.
Adding Biscoff cookies was the last minute decision as well.
And that was one of the best last-minute decisions!
It was almost “meant-to-be.”
It’s a little heaven in a bowl, if you ask me…
Manju is a general term for traditional Japanese confection.
This particular manju is called “Oni Manju.”
Oni is a supernatural fictional demon that often appears in traditional Japanese folk tales.
Why this has the name “oni” is unknown, but the rough look seems to have something to do with it.
The typical Oni Manju is a sticky base with chunks of Japanese sweet potatoes.
This time I decided to make a few different versions.
One with dry cranberries and walnuts in addition to potatoes.
The other is the same as the one above, but the base was Matcha flavored.
This was a perfect hearty snack.
