again about the cupcakes

its the cupcake's fault. i'm off my wheat diet. i did the no-wheat thing for an entire month (yay!) except for the occasional slip-up (i had yam fries at Steamworks twice last month and only figured out the second time that they were breaded - who knew i was that dense?). a month is a long time. really. i'd been contemplating quitting, but needed a good reason. so when the cupcakes arrived at my work, i knew i'd found my reason for quitting. seriously, if i'm supposed to sell customers on the cupcake things, i need to try the damn things, right? right. enough said.

strawberry shortcake cupcakes

yum, seriously.

(photo is copyright of a.meadowlark & taken from here)

check out aleta's blog: the omnomicon
or specifically, her strawberry shortcake cupcakes

because everyone else is cupcaking it up

seeing as everyone else in the blogging world of food is posting about cupcakes and valentines-sappy foods, i thought i'd post a cupcake photo to fit in. one of my delightful friends had a birthday, and let me bake vegan cupcakes for her party. i had fun with it and now understand cupcake-obsessed women. or men (i've never come across one, please let me know if you have).

happy find

this page has a photo of mine on it. linking back to its flickr origins. this made me happy. :)

fish n chips

i'm starting to appreciate fish. my sis fried some last week and it didn't smell too 'fishy' or taste 'fishy.' and i understand, that, yes, fish is supposed to smell like fish, but not the rotting, i-want-to-puke kind of fish smell. but i digress.

i attempted to do the fish thing. i bought some cod from a local store that sells seafood and free-range meat. i dipped it in an egg/lemon whisked liquid and then into a mixture of flour with rosemary-lemon-pepper-salt. then fried in olive oil at a mid-to-high temperature. apparently fish is done when it flakes and when the inside is no longer translucent. which means that in my eagerness to not undercook the fish, i ended up with punctured, flaky fillets that teetered on the edge of being overcooked. and definitely weren't presentable for their glamor shots. but i brightened up the plate with beans & a lemony tahini sauce, and homemade potato & yam chips. which weren't really a success. but good enough. i was inspired (as always) by alicia from bread-and-honey, when she made these chips. i think my oven is hotter than most, cuz the chips either burned or were soggy. i will conquer the homemade potato chip someday...

yummy wheat-free vegan choc chip walnut cookies

as of the beginning of this week i have gone wheat-free for a while, for various health & personal reasons. i've experimented quite a bit over the last year with wheat-free baking, since my sister doesn't eat it, so at least i'm not starting off completely new to it. but now i have to plan my meals better, make or buy wheat-free bread, and stare at delicious baked wheat products all day in longing.

i'm not a huge cookie person, but i like to eat them once in a while, and it struck me that if i ever have a chocolate chip cookie craving, i can't just buy one at a cafe when the craving hits. so i decided to bake some yesterday. and they are delicious. it was a pretty small batch, so i will have to bake some more soon. that way i can freeze a whole bunch to satisfy my 'occasional' chocolate chip cookie craving.

i found this fantastic recipe and pretty much followed it somewhat closely, until i realised the next day that i accidentally ommited the sugar, and just put in the brown sugar. they tasted perfectly sweet to me, so i will leave the sugar part optional.

note: found out that you can make your own 'oat flour' by grinding oats in a blender or food processor.


ingredients:

• 1 & 3/4 cups flour (i used 1 cup oat flour, 3/4 cup brown rice flour. if you want it completely gluten-free, try substituting all rice flour or quinoa flour)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar (optional!)
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (not optional)
  
• 1/3 cup oil (olive or canola)
• 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseeds
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk (or rice milk or regular milk)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts)
  
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Add the vinegar to the soymilk, and set aside. (I think the vinegar is supposed to help the cookies puff up a bit)

If you haven't yet, grind the flax seeds and chop the walnuts ahead of time.

Sift/whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, salt)

In a separate bowl, whisk the ground flax with the soymilk. Then, add the oil, sugar, vanilla, and mix well.

Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and stir until combined. Add the chocolate and walnuts last.

Drop onto cookie sheet by the teaspoon or tablespoon, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe makes about 18-20 small cookies. They don't last long, so it might be good to double the recipe.

gene

a few weeks ago i discovered a trendy little coffee shop while i was milling around after work one day. it intimidated the heck out of me, i thought it was that cool. but one day i really needed to pee, so i went in and bought a coffee so i could use their bathroom. subconsciously it was an excuse to try their americano, which was good.

i went again a few weeks later with a co-worker. we met for coffee, but i had breakfast too. they do the trendy vancouver thing of having mostly organic, fair trade stuff. and some vegan options too (which is great, as my co-worker is vegan). i really love the decor - very simple, mostly white, and reminded me of what i loved about portland. its' a great little spot too. its right on the corner of main & kingsway, but not a 90 degree corner, a 45 degree corner. so kind of like a triangle - a rounded one. the two sides facing streets are basically large windows, so the lighting in there is incredible for photos. when its daylight. i wish i had pictures of the entire place, but as it was, it was a big enough step for me that i had the guts to take my camera out at all. cool, trendy places that i love are really intimidating for me.

here are a few pics of what i was brave enough to take pictures of:

spinach artichoke asiago dip

a few weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that i should attempt to make some sort of artichoke dip. i was going to go all out and prepare my own artichokes even. in the end, i was lazy and used canned artichokes. but i was just un-lazy enough to actually make the dip. i tried following recipes, but i couldn't follow just one, due to either a lack of ingredients or my hidden inner need for complexity of some sort.

but, i actually wrote down what i ended up putting into my conglomeration. and it turned out not half bad.

1/2 cup (or more) shredded cheese (i used asiago & parmesan)
1 can artichokes
1 tsp lemon
100 g (approx) cream cheese
1 cup (ish) blanched spinach
1/2 cup mayo (or veganaise, which is what i used. i realize how pointless it is to use veganaise when i'm using cheese, but the stuff that's in the veganaise is way better than the crap they put in the name-brand mayonnaise. in my opinion.)
salt & pepper

basically, if i can remember properly, i blanched the spinach first. the other option is to use frozen spinach. anyways, i boiled water, threw the spinach in, tossed it for a few seconds (using a tongs, not my hands), took the spinach out, drained it in a colander. after the spinach cools a bit, toss it into a blender or food processor and pulse it a few times till its choppy. if using frozen spinach i think you still need to chop it up a bit in the blender. then, mix everything together in a bowl. taste, add more cheese or salt & pepper to taste, and you are done! yay! apparently it tastes better if you let it sit (in the fridge) for a day, but you can probably eat it right away. best served warm with some type of carbohydrate to dip with.