Sorry to disappear with no warning - I've been enjoying a wonderful and very busy week of yoga workshops & classes. I'm brimming with energy and inspiration, but there hasn't been much time for cooking or posting. But, I have made a few goodies...
First, I made this very nice dessert bread for our Yoga Bookclub meeting. It's an avocado-pecan bread with lime glaze. Very sweet and very delicious. The recipe was from an old issue of VeggieLife magazine. It caught my eyes way back when - and I finally made it. That dark area is where the lime glaze seeped into the bread, for extra flavor!
Here's one of the many salads we've been enjoying this week - cucumbers, beets, carrots, celery, arugula sprouts, kidney beans, & hemp seeds (oh yeah and lettuce of course!). Besides the kidney beans and hemp seeds, every thing is grown locally! I love that.
Well, I really really really like tofu ricotta these days - ever since I discovered the Tofu Ricotta recipe in "Voluptuous Vegan." This is a quick pizza - a *fabulous* Vicollo brand cornmeal crust from the freezer, some garlic, some tofu ricotta, and some delicious tomatoes. One of the farmers at our farmers market is selling this amazing organic tomatoes, grown in a green house. Oh, they are so red and juicy and tomato-y. It's wonderful.
A nice little hummus sandwich. You can see my inferior-looking store-bought tomatoes. Here is the secret to a sophisticated and elegant hummus sandwhich: sprinkle on some fennel seeds. It's amazing! I learned this from a wonderful little local veggie lunch spot called "Black China Cafe." Oh, it's a very nice touch, try it!
I used the second half of my Trader Joe's premade polenta tube for a repeat of my polenta timbales. Served with tofu ricotta (of course), roasted tomatoes with fresh rosemary, caramelized onions, garlicy spinach and slightly burnt roasted butternut squash slices. OOOOH this was good!
I promise not to disappear for so long again. :)
Glad you're back and all inspired! The bread sounds so good, the salad and tomatoes are gorgeous, and the fennel seed tip does sound like a nice touch. That spinach plate looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back! You know, I actually figured that you were out playing in the warm sunshine instead of blogging. I'm still blogging because it's snowing outside- just kidding! =)
ReplyDeleteThat bread looks really good. I love soaking breads or cakes with glaze. And I love fennel seeds, but never thought of putting them on a hummus sandwich- I've got to try that soon. Everything looks great as usual. I can live vicariously through your produce now while waiting for some to show up here.
You should try eating hummus with pita bread and vegs. This is the best way.
ReplyDeleteThe bread looks great! I think I'm going to make bread, today. Probably raisins and walnuts, I think. I love bread. Your timbales look delicious, too.
ReplyDeleteAvocado sweet bread... sounds really good! I love eating locally grown foods, too, especially during the winter here because everything is so good! (it's too hot in the summer for much to grow.) Maybe I'll use one of the six (!) huge local avocados we bought yesterda for some baking...
ReplyDeleteHi Diann,
ReplyDeleteI hope you like the fennel seeds and hummus combo as much as I do! Let me know if you try it. :)
Hi Bazu!
Yes, I've also been outside enjoy the sun - that's true! It's harder to sit inside cooking and blogging when the sun is enticing me outside (or out into my painting studio - I love to paint when it's sunny).
Hi Shooky,
Oh yeah, I love hummus with pita and veggies!! That's definitely the all-time classic, we do that a lot in the summer.
Hi Vincent,
Have you ever tried the No-Knead bread?? It's my most favorite bread recipe ever! You can vary it all sort of ways - and I've made it once with raisins and walnuts... it was fantastic!!
Hi Theresa,
It's odd to think of summer being too hot for produce! Around here, summer is the prime produce time. I can't wait to see what you'll do with your giant avocados!
I made the polenta stacks tonight - although slightly modified. Since I didn't have any fresh tomatoes, I sauteed a couple of whole canned ones (that I diced in the pan) along with onions, mushrooms, garlic, and zucchini. It was delicious! Great idea.
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