Strawberry Nut Milk

A great way to finish off the day.

When I decide to make myself some nut milk I was over joyed and doubled the recipe. How was I too decide whether I should make almond milk, vanilla milk, or…or…or! I decided to go with a collective nut milk consisting of almonds, hazelnuts, and cashews. After blending, straining and making a mess I spiced the milk with vanilla bean and cardamon seeds.

Hazelnuts, Almonds and Cashews

Ground & Strained Nuts in Milking Cloth

To my surprise I found the spices made a noticeable difference right away. Before I ended up grinding all my nuts together I cupped out a batch of the mix and ground them separately with frozen strawberries. I love strawberry milk so much, my mama still brings it by my house when she visits. Making the strawberry milk was a lot of fun and reminded me of milking a cow.

Strawberry Nut Milk

The strawberry milk was surprisingly thicker than I expected and when I first poured the batch through the bag I could not strain the milk through the cloth. I ended up having to empty the nut bag and start the straining again using smaller portions. After slowly and carefully extracting all the milk out of the strawberry batch I mixed with vanilla bean, agave and a pitch of salt. Once chilled I enjoyed over a full glass of ice.

Vanilla Cardamon Nut Milk & Strawberry Nut Milk

20:09

Grape Gazpacho is a light refreshing soup perfect for a warm sunny day, I really couldn’t imagine eating this in the shade. I was tempting this soup for a few days but each morning I rose the clouds hung heavy. Finally one afternoon, the sun peaked through the clouds and continued to stretch through until the cooling evening. When I found this recipe I was overly excited but I couldn’t help but question how good it really was. Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish tomato soup, so how did I find myself with this white gazpacho? Considering this is an adaptation, the exact measurements can be adjusted to you’re liking. The nice part about making this soup is that it is almost impossible to mess it up, an added bonus is that you never have to dirty a pot. All you need to do is add all your ingredients into the food processor and blend into a desirable consistency with a few ice cubes

GRAPE GAZPACHO

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 2, small)

1 Cup Young Green Grapes: Seedless

1 Mini White Cucumber

1/2 Cup Raw Almonds

1 Small White Pepper

1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 Lemon, Juice

1/2 Cup Water

3 Ice Cubes

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Small Handful of Pea Shoots or fresh herbs

 

Blend Almonds in Food Processor until they are as smooth as possible

Mix in grapes, cucumber, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil, Blend for a couple minutes until smooth, add salt and pepper

Drop in ice cubes and add water until you find desirable consistency

Serve with pea shoots or desired fresh herbs on top

20:09

Walnut Seared Fresh Fig

Fruit Carmelo is a delicious way to treat guest or simply spoil yourself. Whether you are looking for a sweet breakfast or that perfect desert fruit carmelo will do the trick. This recipe is quick, easy and you probably already have everything you need in the cupboard. Start with rolling as many bananas as you desire in brown sugar, cut into pieces and sear in pan of hot walnut oil. If you have any other fruit you would like fry now would be the time to throw it in with the bananas, I chose to halve fresh figs without sugar.

Fresh Figs & Bananas in Walnut Oil

Fresh Figs & Bananas in Walnut Oil

Fresh Figs & Bananas in Walnut Oil

While the fruits sear its best to prepare the yogurt dressing, if you dare. With a big pinch of brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon and a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar mix together and drizzle over thick greek yogurt when you sit down to eat. By now your fruits will need to be flipped and mixed around in the oil again. Continue to watch and turn your fruit until the sugar and oil begin to caramelize, be cautious to not burn the sugar. Serve with dressed yogurt and fresh grapes. You will love it!

Fruit Carmelo with Balsamic Glazed Yogurt & Homemade Strawberry Nut Milk

20:08

If you ever find yourself with more than enough portobello mushroom tops throw them on the grill or into the frying pan, todays recipe will show you how to cook these in a pan. I really was hoping to do these on the grill for you today but I somehow ran out of propane…? If you really enjoy working on the grill then cooking a few Portobello should be a breeze, for those unfamiliar with this routine all you will need in addition to the steps shown is an oil brush. Your portobellos will dry out fairly quickly over the flame, so you will need to brush oil on the mushrooms as you rotate them around. If you are working alone, keep your heat levels low as you will need to be watching your fried tomatoes inside as well. It is very easy to burn food when you are running in and out of the house along side all those uncalled for distractions.

Ok so we got a lot of oil in the food, but why be alarmed? If you buy good oils and cook them properly you will find them to be beneficial. Relax! This is an excellent backyard BBQ meal to enjoy with friends. Plus while you are thinking about oil there probably thinking mushrooms… I thought we were having burgers! Everyone will enjoy these biscuits, and easy peazy for you as they are lickidy split fast to make, leaving you with a little more time to laugh.

Portobello Biscuits Grill & Fried Green Tomatoes

 INGREDIENTS

(serves 4)

• 4 ENGLISH MUFFINS
• 4 PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS
• 1 large PEPPER
• 2 handfuls of CHERR HEIRLOOM TOMATOES
• 4 TOMATILLO TOMATOES
• 4 slices of MANCHEGO CHEESE
• 1/4 cup BALSAMIC VINEGAR
• 1 tsp BROWN SUGAR
• 1/3 cup OLIVE OIL
• 1/2 cup CANOLA OIL
• 1 tsp PAPRIKA
• 1 tsp ONION POWDER
• 1 tbsp minced GARLIC
• 1 handful torn BASIL
• handful of garden greens

 THE HOW TO

Balsamic Dressing

• Mix balsamic vinegar with brown sugar and bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes
• Remove from heat and place in a bowl to thicken

 Portobello Biscuits and Fried Green Tomatoes

• Preheat oven to 300′F on bake
• Heat olive oil on medium heat with paprika and onion powder when warm place mushrooms top down
• Brake peppers in half and top with garlic, place in oven for 5 min then flip add more garlic bake for another 10 minutes or until done
• Slice tomatillo into quarters with out cutting all the way through, leave skin leave intact. Place tomatillos face down around mushrooms with the cherry tomatoes, add more olive oil if needed
• (START beet chips, see below)
• Flip mushroom and fry for a few minutes, once bottoms are cooked flip again and  top with manchego cheese
• Flip Tomatillos and cover pan to melt cheese
• Start toasting english muffins
• Remove peppers from oven and cut them in half (NOT length wise)
• Drizzle balsamic vinegar on bottom half of english muffin, place mushroom down with pepper on top garnish with basil and garden greens, pour a little more vinegar over the sandwich cover with the second half of the english muffin

Beetroot Chips

(Beet should be started just before you fry the tomatoes)

• Slice beets 1/4 to 1/2 cm thick
• Heat canola oil, HOT HOT
• Evenly disperse around thick pot, flip and stir once they begin to brown
• When ready lay across paper towel or shake in a brown paper bag

20:07

When I came across this recipe I was in such delight that I went out and bought 3 pounds of cherries from the farmers market, and for a really good deal! When I got home I dropped them on the counter and ate them like candy. After I finally got my hands on some organic buttermilk and readied some homemade ricotta cheese was set to bake. Im not a baking person by nature and the only thing Im ever tempted to bake is sugar cookies, yet for some reason Im always missing ingredients. I was so draw to this recipe that I went out and found a few baking essentials, for instance a muffin pan.

Mixing the batter was fun and ever so tasty, if you have kids or finger licking friends I’ll be sure they will be there to clean out the bowls, spatulas and whiskers as I sure did! The recipe is simple though a little time consuming as halving and pitting the cherries is tedious, find a friend or sit down in the sun to pit away. Make sure you don’t eat every other cherry as I did, you may be there for a while longer. Once all of the ingredients are mixed you will have a very thick paste of a mess. At this point you may as well get dirty, I first tried spooning out the batter into the cupcake papers but it seemed to be a bigger nusiance than just picking balls of the mix and dropping them in. Perfect cupcakes are for Starbucks, I just allowed the batter to set into place on its own, licked my fingers clean and topped the muffins with leftover cherry halves.

Ricotta Cherry Muffins

(9 muffins, small/Doubling this recipe will give you a dozen big muffins)

 

1/2 cup Homemade Ricotta Cheese

3/4 cup Cherries: Halved & Pitted

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 tbsp Butter: Unsalted & Melted

1 Egg

1/2 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice & Zest

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1/3 cup heaping White Sugar

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/16 tsp Baking Soda

 

Preheat oven to 350˚F line muffin tray with 9 paper cups, fill remaining empty muffin spots with a centimetre of water. Set aside

Whisk Ricotta and egg together, add buttermilk, cooled melted butter, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Mix Well

In a separate bowl mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and zest. Mix Well

Add ricotta mixture to the flour mixture, blend until completely combined yet still thick. Do not over mix

Gently combine halved cherries into mixture, set aside 9 cherry halves to place atop each muffin.

Bake for 20 min or until golden, check with a toothpick

20:07

For almost a week now I have been tempting the idea of squash salad, with an abundance of lettuce greens and a bag of locally grown ninja spinach there was no better choice. With a number of amazing recipes popping out at me I struggled narrowing it down to just one. Instead I read through about a half dozen recipe choices  picking and pulling all my favourite ingredients. After all of the possible ingredients were jotted down on a notepad I split and mixed all the possible choices for the best dressing and marinade, everything else was discarded. Now for substance, I wanted to go for a nice sweet rich taste with a little bite, I figured adding a few onions may do the trick. As for rich flavours to help bond with the squash I thought figs, walnuts, sweet peppers, garlic and sage would taste great together.

The salad alone wasn’t enough for me So I decide to go with tomato peach chicken (this recipe is not listed) as the chicken cooked I prepped the salad in decent time. If you are stressed for time you can quickly whip the dressing and marinade together and store in the fridge for later. You can also conveniently double the recipes and have extra for another occasion.The marinade can also work as a flavourful salad dressing in cabbage greens salad.

Butternut Ginger Salad

INGREDIENTS

4  cups Butternut Squash, cubed

4 cups Spinach or Mixed Lettuce Greens

8 dried figs, chopped

1/4 cup Walnuts, crushed

1 cup Sweet Red Peppers, chopped

1/3 cup White Onion, minced

4 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 tbsp Fresh Sage, ripped

 

SALAD DRESSING
1/4 cup Walnut Oil

2 tbsp Cider Vinegar

2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 tsp Cayenne Spice

1/2 Lemon Zest

 

BUTTERNUT SQUASH MARINADE

1/3 cup Olive Oil

1/2 Lemon, juice & Pulp

2 tbsp Honey (Vegan, replace with brown sugar)

1 tbsp Ginger, minced

1/4 tsp Salt

 

Directions

 

Preheat Oven to 375˚F

Dice butternut squash and place in big bowl, in a separate small bowl start with marinade. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice with pulp, honey, ginger and salt. Pour half of the marinade over the raw squash, toss squash around and add remaining marinade, continue to mix until all of the squash is marinaded. Spread a single layer of squash evenly across a large deep baking pan with marinade. Bake for 30 min, at 25 min pull squash out and garnish with sage, continue baking for another 5 min. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

 

 

In a jar mix walnut oil, cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, cayenne spice and lemon zest, shake well and set aside. Tear salad greens into a medium bowl with figs, walnuts, peppers, onions, and garlic. Shake dressing up again and pour over salad, toss salad and serve with  butternut squash on top.

20:06

Some of the best barrel feta in the city is found just 3 blocks from my house, I make frequent stops there through the month, to assure I always have a fresh stock. Sure I could buy a larger batch to last a little longer but feta clean out of the brine is the way to do it. it taste better, smells better, and is still so moist.

Feta is great in salads, on pizza, melted into veggie dishes and can be stuffed into everything from peaches to peppers. But what about just eating it on its own, sure I’ll go to the fridge and nibble on the block but never do I sit down with a fork and knife and go at it. I have to admit its is a very overwhelming cheese, the salt alone would make me want to get up and walk away. But what goes better with salty than sweet, nothing… So here is how you can sit down with a block of feta eat it all and still want more for years to come. The first time I ever tried honey baked feta was in 2009, it is 2012 and Im still thinking about it. Now this can be eaten along side a meal or you can set it out as a toothpick appetizer for a dinner parties.

20:05