For the last few years, I’ve been writing a monthly column in my local newspaper showcasing gluten-free vegan awesomeness, with a load of nutrition-promoting info, too.
Instead of linking to all of the articles, I’m going to be bringing them in here, so I’ll try to do them in a timely manner.
Anything in the category Articles is from the St. Catharines Standard.
And maybe others, too (if I remember to click that category button). Continue reading
The dressing is a whizz of soaked hemp seeds, garlic, ginger, garam masala, turmeric and some other tasty ingredients – unfortunately, this was last week and I hadn’t had a moment to post it up, so I don’t exactly recall. Lime, too.
Lots of broccoli, red onion, green onion, napa cabbage, mango, red peppers and cauliflower.
Unless, perhaps, you were a young’n filled with animosity and Santa dutifully filled your stocking with coal, causing, then, a chain of events with increasing outputting anger, you probably love Christmas.
I sure do. And I was good as gold. Still am in the eyes of Ol’ Saint Nick, I reckon.
A couple of weeks ago, I began my baking extravaganza – the one that stops when Christmas is here. With the sound system tuned to Christmas carols, I work my way through various flours, sweet-smelling unrefined sugars, fragrant flavours, with a smile permanently plastered upon my face.
I love Christmas. (Really, I do – even wrote a whole article about it here)
curried bean patties
Anyway, between CBEI and CBEII (Christmas Baking Extravaganza I and II, of course), I assembled some quick curry bean patties. They tasted great out of the oven – basically mushy beans with curry spices baked together – but not so much later. I just wanted some quick comforting curry flavoured beans with a nice agave-mustard dressing on greens, because of all of the intermittent taste testing.
chewy molasses cookies
CBEI featured Walnut Squares, Hawaiian Squares, and Nanaimo Bars (all from my first book, Mission in the Kitchen, and some re-formatted for my second book), and Chewy Molasses Cookies (from my second book). Unfortunately for the latter, they didn’t make it to the CBEI Freezer, but instead, just in our bellies that night – they were darn delicious and frankly, two Polish men, a lady with a huge sweet tooth, and a baker sampling her goods couldn’t leave this batch alone.
hawaiian squares
Truth be told, my favourite thing about holiday baking is baking for others. I love the satisfaction of baking gluten-free, vegan delights that “taste normal” or “taste like the real thing” (two pieces of terminology that drive me mad, but if those will be the compliments offered, then those will be what I accept with grace). Often, these words “vegan” and “gluten-free” aren’t mentioned, for those who might forg0 either term and replace it with various “yummies”.
But all in all, I just love to bake. But even more so, I love Christmas. Have I mentioned it? I do.
candy cake cookies
CBEII took place yesterday, then. I woke up, enjoyed my morning Breakfast Television over a coffee and a small breakfast, then off to yoga. I can’t lie – yoga was tough, for the reason of the following meditation. While the rest of my classmates journeyed through a guided meditation, visiting beauty and peace, I made myself a mental grocery list to get some much needed baking supplies, then chanted them silently so I wouldn’t forget.
That is some sort of meditation, isn’t it? Perhaps manta recitation can be grocery-list-making? Perhaps not.
Alas, I didn’t forget any pertinent supplies and came home with a mission in mind for CBEII. I went downstairs to the freezer and gasped (perhaps using a few choice words). I was chocolate-chip-less.
To some people, this can be solved with a quick trip to the store. For a gluten-free vegan, this is a 45 minute drive away. My stock of six bags from my last purchase had dwindled to zero. My four chocolate-based CBEII treats? Postponed to CBEIII.
maple-pecan pie mini cupcakes
The results, then, were Candy Cane Cookies (from Mission in the Kitchen), Maple-Pecan Pie Mini Cupcakes (from my new book), and a fudge that is still being tested. Not nearly as much as I anticipated, but a solid turn-out nonetheless.
I love Christmas!
