Back to Basics....

I don't know about you all, but I have over indulged big time and ready to get back to simple, nutrient dense, delicious meals. :) Let me know what you think of the raw beet salad recipe below!

Raw Beet Salad with Kumquats, Pistachios and Fresh Herbs
serves 4-6

Salad:

2 large organic red beets, peeled and grated
2 small organic apples or 1 large, grated (no need to peel if organic) 

6-8 seeded and sliced kumquats (you can eat the peel and flesh!)
1/3 cup salted (optional, but I found the hit of salt played nicely with the tang of the kumquats) and shelled organic pistachios  
Handful of chopped fresh herbs of choice. I used flat-leaf parsley this time cause it's what I had on hand, but I'm sure cilantro would be really good too! 

Dressing: *note this is not very scientific cause I am so bad about writing things down, so do taste and adjust as needed!*

In a jelly jar add:

• the juice of one lime
• a generous splash of Apple Cider Vinegar 
• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated with a micro grater and juiced with your hands (discard pulp)
• Small splash of GF tamari 
• drizzle of maple syrup

Slowly add extra virgin olive oil till the oil is double the amount of the above liquid. In ratio terms 1:2 ( I think?). 

Screw on the top and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE till emulsified. 

Taste test it and adjust as needed. 

Add dressing to the grated beet and apple. Toss well. Then add the kumquats, pistachios and fresh herbs so they sit on top and make the salad festive and beautiful! :) 

A Winter Wonderland Christmas in Vermont

The Art of Nature and Architecture at the Gardiner Farm

My Aunt's (non-working) farm, is one of the most beautiful places on earth (to me)! It has such a magical quatlity to that I can't get enough of. Every year we get our Christmas tree from her land and  this was Olive's first time cutting her own down! (psst....that's coming up next on the blog!;)

Christmas Cookie Madness has official begun! Part 1....feeling cynical

Every year my step-mother makes an amazing assortment of German style Christmas cookies that are mostly made of the usual suspects: butter, nuts and sugar (see picture #1). :)) As DELICIOUS as they are, I decided to take my own stab at making traditional cookies but without the flour and butter. NO WAY, you say, well, guess what, YES WAY thanks to the Babycakes (a vegan bakery in the Lower East Side, NYC) cookbook! Try out this awesome Gingerbread recipe and see for yourself! ;-)


Gingerbread Cookies (V/GF)
*Recipe from Babycakes Covers the Classics, see (my) Baker's notes in purple. *smirk*
Makes 36 large cookies or a gazillion little cookies (they don't tell you this *small detail!)


2 1/2 cups brown or white rice flour (plus at least another two more cups for dusting-- think full on white out!!) 
2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking flour
2 1/2 cups organic sugar (I used 1/2 this amount and they were plenty sweet!)
1/2 cup arrowroot
3 tablespoons ground ginger 
2 tablespoons cinnamon  
1 tablespoon xanthan gum 
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 cups melted refined coconut oil 
3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup vanilla (in retrospect I would use 1/2 this amount cause the vanilla overshadows the ginger and cinnamon too much-- and those are the flavors I want to be tasting, geesh!)
1/3 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, the all-purpose flour, sugar, arrowroot, ginger, cinnamon, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda and nutmeg. Add the coconut oil, applesauce, and vanilla and stir with a rubber spatula until a thick dough forms. Gradually add the cold water till the dough is slightly tacky. (It will be very tacky and look like you've done something very wrong! But don't fear it will come together in the end! :)
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30mins. (longer is fine too! In fact, I left it covered overnight cause I did my baking over the course of two afternoons-- that's how much dough this recipe makes! ;) However, the coconut oil will solidify and look like someone spilled yellow wax all over your dough! Again, don't freak, this is very normal. All you have to do is massage the dough in your hands for several minutes-- with MORE flour-- and the oil will remelt. Thank the gods!)
Dust (heavily!!) a clean work surface with some rice flour, place dough in the center (whatev's) and roll the dough around until it is fully coated with flour (again, heavily! This is really oily/sticky dough and it needs a lot more flour worked into it or it will STICK!) Dust the rolling pin with MORE flour and roll out dough to 1/4th inch thickness.
Cut out cookies with your desired cookie cutters (does this sound kinky to you?) and transfer them from the work surface to the prepared baking sheets with a spatula, placing them about 1 inch apart (duh.). Bake for 7 mins (if your oven runs hot, like mine-- that's right baby-- then bake for closer to 5 mins) rotate the baking sheets for 5-7 more minutes. (Ok, it actually says for 10 more minutes, but from personal experience that made them burnt vanilla cookies and we want thin crisp gingerbread cookies, Babycakes!) 

Tomorrow's cookie madness agenda: Accidental (you'll here all about it, don't worry) Cardamom Drops and Hamentaschen (homage to the Old Country:)! 

Beacon or bust!

Ella's Bellas Bakery on Main Street has fantastic GF goodies and an insane Hot chocolate! 

Main Squeeze juice bar just opened up! Are we in Brooklyn or Beacon? 

Where the Round House and Fishkill Creek collide 

A real life gingerbread house

Frozen and perserved 

Icy walk to town 

Dark Beauty 

We ended up spending an icy weekend in Beacon, NY-- just north of the city in the Hudson Valley. This town just keeps getting better and better every time we visit! More shops, cafe's, restaurants, and now a JUICE BAR!?!? I'm sold! ;-)

New York, New York (part 2): 5th Avenue

I love 5th Avenue this time of year, especially at night when there are fewer people out and about and all the windows and lights are lit up. I thought the windows were especially glamorous this year, and of course the tree at Rockefeller Center was massive!! I loved the Empire State Building's tribute to Nelson Mandela. <3