Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello Readers!

I am so sorry I haven't posted any new entries...I went on vacation for a bit and have tons to share from my trip back home to California. I just got back to NY and my internet is down for the moment. I promise there will be new posts and photos coming very soon! Thanks for reading and keep on eating!

xoxo,
SandigurL

Healthy, but "Chocolatey" (A spin on Oatmeal Cookies)

So there are several June Birthdays going on this month and I was asked to bake something healthy, but with chocolate for our favorite French Head-Honcho at work. His chocolate addiction is as sinister as a smoker's desire to quit smoking...Relentless.


Anyway, I raked through my recipe books and did some research online and decided to go with a Strawberry Chocolate Vegan Cupcake Recipe. I changed up a few of the ingredients and substituted the vegetable shortening with apple sauce, etc. but I think this was probably the biggest disaster I've ever encountered in the baking kitchen! Lets just say, whole wheat flour and strawberries don't go very well together--ugh, thank goodness no one saw or tasted the mess! So back to the drawing board for more ideas...


I didn't have much time so I just decided to do something simple--cookies! Oatmeal Cookies are probably the healthiest by far, but I wanted to make them as "chocolatey" as possible and found this Irish Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe online (what a mouthful, right?!) It was perfect because we were planning on having a little Bagel Breafast Special for our boss who happens to love Irish Smoked Salmon Lox Spread! I made about 3 dozen cookies and my housemate commented that they looked like pieces of turd...
Again, I guess I have to work on my presentation skills a little bit more...I also packed some for another birthday event I had to attend the following evening and they were a huge success despite looking like poop!

Farmer's Market: Apples and Swiss Chard

Apple Season is sadly at an end as I shopped the local farmer's market here in Fort Greene recently. I was hoping to find a couple good golden delicious or gala apples to go with the fresh bright red swiss chard, but alas, I was unsucessful. I ended up having to go to a regular grocery store to pick up a couple because I had my heart set on making my Applie Swiss Chard Salad.

I cut up the apples in bite size chunks, toasted the pine nuts in a little olive oil, threw in some golden raisins soaked in water to help plump them up, and slow sauteed this over a low flame for about 5-7 minutes. I cleaned and de-stemmed the swiss chard and toss that in to sautee in the olive oil for about 8 minutes before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. This is a a naturally sweet salad with a nutty bite that does not require any salad dressing because all the natural flavors cook into the leaves and the water in the fruit releases to create a very light and sweet sauce. Take a look:

May Flowers Bake Sale!!

I held one last bake sale before the summer starts and the theme for the month was May Flowers. Everyone at work was complaining that it was hard for them to go on a diet because of my bake sales...little did they know that I always try to cut out as much fat as possible without ruining the flavors of these tasty treats!

I baked Thumbprint Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies filled with Apricot, Strawberry, and Raspberry preserves. I cut out half the sugar and instead of butter, I used coconut oil. Coconut oil is a lot healtheir for your body because it helps increase your metabolism and is high in lauric acid which helps fight virusus in your body.
I baked Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting. I tried using coconut oil to make the frosting, but I cound not skimp out on the butter...The raspberry flavor did not go very well with the coconut and left a strange after taste so I had to stick to the orginal recipe, but it was still Gluten Free!


Lastly, I baked Cinnamon Streusel Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting! These cupcakes did not sell as well as I had hoped. I guess people are not huge fans of cinnamon flavored things unless it comes in the form of a cinnamon roll, right?! Maybe that will be next on my list of things to bake...

Soy & Sake (Restaurant Review)

Let me just say that I'm so grateful to have the few friends who are down to try vegan/vegetarian food and don't mind going to an all vegan/vegetarian restaurant--thanks!

Anyway, Soy and Sake is a Japanese Pan-Asian Fusion Vegan & Vegetarian restaurant located in the West Village. Their menu actually has a lot more selections than just Asian inspired cuisine. There were a lot of Southern-Cajun and Spanish inspired appetizers like the Buffalo Wings and Soy Crab Tortilla, both of which I ordered! I also ordered the Spicy "Tuna" Crunchy Roll because I was curious how the make soy taste like fish...

The Buffalo Wings were tasty! It came with this vegan ranch dressing which was a lot sweeter than actual regular ranch dressing (like the Hidden Valley or Wishbone dressing), but it definitely balanced the mild spiciness of the wing sauce. They even put little mini lollipop sticks inside the soy buffalo wing to make it more like a drumstick so you can hold it to eat with your hands! How clever is that, right?

The Soy Crab Tortilla was really tasty and crunchy! There were three crunchy tortilla shells topped with shredded veggies and the soy crab meat and came on top of a bed of shredded beets. The presentation and plating of this was very well done and I'm sad I forgot to photograph my food before gobbling it up!

The Spicy "Tuna" Crunchy Roll was interesting...I can't say I didn't like it because I finished it! Haha, but it was definitely different than a real spicy tuna roll and not as spicy as I had anticipated. I really did like the crunchy factor which really helped with the texture of the roll.

My friend ordered the Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries was quite satisfied with her sandwich. The sweet potato fries here are very good and highly recommended!

Overall, I was very pleased and quite impressed by the quality and the variety of offerings available. The service here was amazing--the food came out super fast and the waitress was very nice and left us alone to chat a while longer even after we finished our meal.

I really have to remember to photography my food before eating it all up! So the photos are from the website:

Happy Cinco De Mayo!! (+Restaurant Review)

So the girls and I went out for a catch-up/marathon victory celebration last night. It was also Cinco De Mayo so why not dine at a somewhat fancy Mexican Restaurant?!

We decided on Mahayuel over in the LES and ended up having to wait a bit for a table. Was the wait worth it? Ambience-wise, well, lets just say the space is tight and the tables are small. Apparently Emily Blunt was dining here as we walked out, but I didn't see her. Food-wise, I've definitely had better Mexican Food. Maybe I am a bit partial being from Los Angeles and all, but nothing beats homemade Tamales and Tortillas made with love from from la senora!

Anyway, Mahayuel's menu is served tapas style and includes a variety of cocktail drinks, all of course tequila based. For Appetizers we shared popcorn and chips with salsa. Their Popcorn dish is called "Polomitas" and was pretty tasty. It was sprinkled with cotija cheese and ancho chili. Apparently there was lime squeezed on top of it, but I couldn't taste it... Their Chips and Salsa dish is called "Tortillas" and come with 3 different dipping sauces: Guacamole, Smoked Tomato, and Salsa Verde. The Guacamole could have used a bit more lime juice, but overall it was pretty on par with standard guacamole. The Smoked Tomato sauce was very different as I've never had a smoked base salsa. I can't quite say I liked or disliked it, but the Salsa Verde definitely turned out to be my favorite of the 3.

For the main entree, I ordered TAMALES! I was craving homemade tamales and haven't had one in quite some time so I was pleasantly surprised with their Roasted Corn and Charred Poblano Tamale. My friends ordered the Mole with Braised Chicken Tamale and said it was just as tasty. However, if you don't like spicy food, just be careful as the Mole is a bit on the spicier side. The photo below was stolen from their website...so check it out if you're in the neighborhood and dire need of a great cocktail and some Mexican Food!

April Showers Bake Sale

I ended up baking a ton of goodies for the April fundraiser bake sale at work since a couple of the girls were unable to this time. I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies since I know people are kind of weird about Oatmeal Raisin Cookies... Why don't people like raisins? It's my favorite cookie! It's probably a good thing or else I would have eaten all the oatmeal raisin ones and there wouldn't have been any left for my bake sale! I didn't get a chance to photograph everything so not everything is pictured here...

In addition, I baked Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, and this weird mistake that turned out pretty good. I named it Chocolate Chip Cake Bread...I was trying to make Chocolate Chip Blondies and was using yogurt to cut out some of that fat from the cream cheese, but yeah I kind of messed up the whole thing and just dumped everything into bowl and turned the mixer on. Haha, it tasted fine, but I had to put it in the a cake pan mold so it looked semi-presentable, so it's probably better I didn't photograph that one!