Lavender lemon scones
The recipe still needs a bit of work. They need more lavender. With spring on its way I keep wanting to make things with flowers.
Black velvet cupcakes with broken chocolate hearts - the anti-valentine’s day treat!It’s a bit late but I haven’t had much time to upload photos lately.
Neat Market!!!
This month’s Neat Market is coming up in a few days and I’m ridiculously excited about it. There will be even more vendors this time in a bigger venue. And I’ll have enough money to splurge on all kinds of awesome food and crafts.
If you happen to be in the Denver area this Sunday check it out! It’ll be at The Other Side Arts 1664 Platte from 11 am to 3 pm.
For more info check out the Plants and Animals site.
I’ll be making food for the P&A minimart again. More handpies because everyone loved them last time. They’ll have a sweet potato, collards and andouille bean sausage filling this time. I’ll also have tamarind sea salt caramels and four kinds of rolled truffles.
I spent my day off yesterday cooking a big meal for a group of wonderful friends. Since I’ve been missing home so much I decided to make a bunch of my favorite fiesta foods. It was amazing getting to share this kind of food with friends.
The menu included red rice, pancit, tempeh kelaguen, lumpia, finadene, tofu adobo, pickled daikon, latiya and bibingka.
We all ended the night with full tummies and there was plenty of food for everyone to take home.
I’m happy!
This is a big deal for me. Feeling truly, wonderfully happy doesn’t happen very often. So much of my life is tinged with disappointment, depression, anger…feeling so wonderful right now is a bit bewildering.
So much of this is due to the success of the Neat Market. It was the most amazing day. There were so many people there! Everyone was so positive! The energy was amazing. I had so much positive feedback from people.
This is what I want to do. I want to make pastries and confections and all sorts of other goodies and make people happy.
Neat Market!!!
Tomorrow is the first Neat Market - an all vegan pop up market here in Denver. I’m so excited to be involved with this. I’ll be making some candies and chocolates and some awesome broco-cheddar handpies.
If you want to read more about it go to plantsanimals.org.
I’m just happy that once a month I’ll have some place to go where there will be no question about what products are made of. And the market will be full of local vendors!
I’m not that fond of winter
I know Denver has relatively mild winters. I shouldn’t complain. And I really don’t complain as much as when I first moved here. But it’s still depressing. The cold. The short days. Snow.
I’m an island girl. Doesn’t matter where in the world I end up that will never change. I miss the ocean and sun. Year round the amount of daylight doesn’t vary by much. So no weird seasonal depression. If I could afford to go back for a couple weeks I would. But a round trip ticket is about what I make in a month.
I have been baking a lot though. It helps keep my apartment warm. I just need to get my butt to the library and in front of a computer so I can post about them. Did I also mention that winter makes me lazy? I do no relish the idea of trudging through the snow to use a computer for an hour or so.
I’ll eventually post some new recipes and photos…
Rustic Sourdough Bread
I made about 200 of these rolls for the Chomp! Thanksliving feast.
They’re not difficult to make but they do take time. And you’ll need a sourdough starter. If you don’t know anyone who has some starter to share you’ll need to get one going yourself. I ended up piecing together a starter recipe from several ones I found online. It was about a week and a half before the starter was ready.
So, here’s the bread recipe and hopefully I’ll have a simple starter recipe ready in a couple days.
Rustic Sourdough Bread
makes 2 large loaves or about 24 rolls
Ingredients
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tablespoon agave
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
optional:
1 teaspoon parsley
2 teaspoons rosemary
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
1. Combine the starter, water and 3 cups of the all purpose flour. Mix well.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Scrap the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly sticky.
4. Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly floured bowl. Cover with a towel and let the dough rise until doubled. This could take a couple of hours or more.
5.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
6. Divide the dough into 2 (for loaves) or 24 (for rolls) pieces and shape into ovals. Place these on parchment lined baking sheets. Let rest for a couple of hours or until they’re nearly doubled.
7. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Slash the tops of the dough; two on each of the larger loaves or one on each roll.
9. Open the oven and mist with water. Quickly place the baking sheets in the oven and turn the heat down to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms are deep golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove them from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
