Meatless Chili

As fall approaches and the weather starts to cool off I start to think chili. I tried this recipe from epicurious with a few adjustments.

In a pot on the stove heat
1 tablespoon olive oil
Add
1 diced onion
1 carrot
2 jalapeño
until onion is soft then add
3 cloves garlic
saute about one minute then add
1/2 cup couscous
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
until combined

Stir in
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 a beer
1 can of black beans (drained)
1 can of pinto beans (drained) because I did not have kidney beans
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper

let simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally

I served it with sliced avocado on top and a little cheddar cheese is always nice too.

Citrus Basil Cookies

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of these but they were a lovely bright tasting cookie I'll be making again!

For the cookies
1 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled
2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel
1/4 teaspoon salt

put everything in a food processor and plus until large clumps, remove from food processor and make a large ball then from that form small balls and press with the bottom of a glass into thin rounds
bake at 375 for 15- 20 minutes

for the Lime Glaze
3 1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 T lime juice

mix until smooth and spoon over the cookies

Quinoa Cookies with chocolate almond and espresso

I came across this cookie recipe, made a few adjustments based on my pantry and gave it a try.

in a bowl combine:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

in another bowl mix together the dry ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup spent grain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

mix together both bowls of ingredients
then fold in
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup quinoa

and
Bake on lined baking sheet at 350 for 10 minutes

5 for the Fourth - festive cookies

Getting ready for a party on the 4th and decided to try out some new festive cookie recipes to bring to the potluck.

Hot Dog Cookies
recipe from serious eats
These were too cute not to try! I made them much smaller than recommended which seems to have worked out well. Hot dogs are only about 1" long. For the 'mustard' I did a simple powdered sugar, water frosting with yellow food coloring.

Red White &Blue Cake Balls
I used the same cake recipe I used for rainbow cake balls  to make these but I decided not to wrap the cake in brownies and I coated them in semi sweet chocolate chips.

Carmel Brownie Bites
I used this brownie recipe 
Then to make them look festive I found inspiration here. I cut them in to bites and coated them with candy melts.

Pinwheel Cookies 
I came across these on Just A Taste. I should have followed some of the instructions a little more closely… instead of rolling the dough between wax paper I used flour which then made it hard to roll the dough and get it to stick together as a pinwheel. I also found that they needed to cook for about 20 minutes, twice the recommended time.

s'mores
Nothing beats roasting marshmallows over the campfire but these are a close second! I came across this recipe and put my own twist on it, partly because the recipe requires a microwave which I do not have.
Ingredients: graham crackers, marshmallow fluff, nutella, milk chocolate chips, red candy melts
I split the graham crackers into quarters along their existing lines, I put fluff on one side and nutella on the other then coated half of it in milk chocolate and half in candy melts

 Fireworks Cookies
These are a Martha Stewart recipe 

These were a lot of fun to decorate but it was time consuming. 

For the icing I used powdered sugar and water. I tried store bought gel frosting which looked cool but was sticky and made it hard to stack and store the cookies. The above cookies were decorated with gel icing. I also tried decorating some with food colored powder sugar icing, pictured below. 

Chocolate Avocado Cookies

I love avocados. I have been hearing about baking with them and happened to have one that is too soft to eat sliced so I decided I'd try baking it. So I decided to try this avocado cookie recipe.

They are amazingly quick and easy to make and I was pleased by the resulting soft chocolatey cookie. While my husband said he couldn't taste the avocado, for me, the first bite of each cookie (I've sampled a few) tastes like avocado, which could just be because when I pick one up I think 'this is an avocado cookie' and after the first bite I don't notice the avocado flavor anymore.

So, here's what I did
Use a mixer to combine
1 very ripe avocado
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
once the batter is smooth mix in by hand
1/2 cup chocolate chips - I used large milk chocolate chips

Put dollops of batter on a lined cookie sheet. They don't spread so you may want to push them down a little with the back of your spoon to shape them. Then bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Store in the fridge

Spent Grain Crepes with Seasonal Fillings

After a beautiful solstice yesterday with the farmers market, productivity, delicious dinner and time to sit and enjoy the beautiful evening in my backyard I woke up this morning with energy and motivation. I think it also helps that we switched our curtains from total light blocking ones to some that let the light filter in when the sun comes up... I got up thinking about pancakes and exercise. I started the day with a run and while running decided pancakes sounded good but too heavy so I decided on crepes instead. Even though we haven't brewed any beer in a few months we still have plenty of spent grain flour to use up from the last batches so I decided to throw that in too. 

Spent Grain Crepes (made 8 crepes)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup spent grain flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs (beaten)

1 cup of milk

Combine all ingredients and mix with a hand mixer until smooth. If it doesn't seem runny enough for your liking feel free to add more milk. Put butter in a pan and once it is hot pour some batter in and swirl the pan to move the batter so it makes a thin coating of batter on the bottom, once edges look cooked flip and cook the other side then add the fillings of your choice. Below are the fillings I tried today. 

Savory Filling

homemade cashew cheese *

fresh cherries

arugula from the garden

Sweet Filling

Rhubarb 'compote' (left over rhubarb from making rhubarb simple syrup)

fresh strawberries

*Vegan Cahew Cheese: soak 1 cup of raw cashews is 3 cups of water for a minimum of an hour or up to overnight, drain and rinse then combine in food processor with 2 teaspoons lemon juice, salt & fresh black pepper, 1/4 cup warm water blend until smooth. 

hand hammared clasp

I inherited some tools from my grandfather some of which I've never used until today. I decided to try to make a hook and loop clasp which was so fun and easy that I will be buying many less clasps in the future now that I can make them. And I'm using some of them in my new sea glass jewelry. 

Pictured above are the tools I used 

First I used pliers to to bend a small piece of wire to be the "loop" side 

Then I used the hammer to flatten it 

and used the pliers again to pinch the ends in so there were no gaps 

for the hook side I started by hammering a bit flat and then bent it to form the hook

next I bent another loop and hammered the loop part flat as well

Quick and easy!