Favourite Recipes of 2011: Because It’s Obligatory, Buttercups

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Hannah

Today is the last day of 2011. As I’m sure many of you would agree, this is somewhat incomprehensible because holy-bucket-wasn’t-it-just-February-last-week? For me, 2011 rocketed by in a heady whirlwind of monumental change, growth, and laughter, and I am grateful for every moment that has helped me create a life and self no longer plagued by waves of greyness and anxiety each morning upon waking. Yes, there have been moments of uncertainty and devastation, but that’s simply part of existing in this world. Moreover, such moments make the shining days even more incandescent.

2011 stands out for me as a year in which I learned how to trust in myself. A year in which many true and lasting friendships blossomed or were strengthened. 2011 saw me become the Queen of [Raw Vegan] Balls, join the Strange Weather Gospel Choir and thereby [re]discover exquisite happiness, laugh until I couldn’t breathe more times than I could count and cry myself into exhaustion less times than all years in recent memory. 2011 was also, of course, another year in which I delighted in writing this blog and experiencing the wonderful moments, comments, and friendships recorded in each post.

I love you all.

My Somewhat-Haphazardly-Chosen Favourite Recipes of 2011

While I may not have joined in the recent Christmas recipes food blogosphere flurry, I shall certainly contribute to the “Best of 2011…” posts that are currently proliferating on the Internet at a gooseneck* speed. At first I thought I’d give you my top ten salad recipes, but that simply caused me to laugh until I wheezed on account of my having posted only one salad recipe in the past 365 days. What can I say? I likes me some sweetness, sweeties.

* Hi Mum! You’re never going to live that one down.

Here are my top picks for 2011′s deliciousness:

Maple Coconut Tahini Granola, aka The Best Granola Yet (Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Raw Brownies with Chocolate Icing of Pure Amazingness (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Bonus recipe: my Raw Vegan Maple Carob Brownies (pictured at top of post)

gluten-free and dairy-free dark chocolate almond and cherry cake Almond Cherry and Dark Chocolate Cake (Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Chocolate Date Meringue Torte (Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Didn’t I say I was the Queen of Balls? Some of my most popular raw vegan truffle recipes are my Date Coconut Cashew Energy Treats, Anzac Biscuit Truffles, Lemon Poppyseed Truffles (pictured far above), Mango Date and Sunflower Balls, and Sunflower Chocolate Chip Cookie Protein Bites.

Raw Vegan Carob Pecan Biscotti (Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Cashew, Fig and Molasses Nut Butter (Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-Free)

Bonus Recipe: Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter, which turns fudge-like in the fridge.

Black Forest Cupcakes

Potage St Germain Split Pea Soup (what? I totally eat vegetables every day; I just don’t generally blog about it. Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free)

Do you know what would be amazing? If I could close out 2011 with a banquet comprising all the recipes I just linked to.Where’s my Fairy Cooking Godmother when I need her?

Happy New Year, darling reader-friends! I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings each and everyone one of us. Elated-face!

2011 Christmas Part Two: Christmas Lunch

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Hannah

Thank you for your fantastimical and not-soul-destroying responses to my cavorting video post! Just so you know, my slow-motion moves are available for birthday parties, weddings, anniversary dinners, and work shindigs. My imaginary agent tells me that my imaginary bookings line has been ringing non-stop in an imaginary way, so if you want to hire me in the near future, best get in quick.

Christmas Day this year dawned bright and sunny (no crazy hail storms here!), and I eased myself into the festive spirit with a bowl of coconut chocolate oatmeal for breakfast over an episode of The West Wing. Perfection!

I then made my way over to my parents’ house to join in with the lunch preparations. I mixed dressings, chopped veggies, muddled limes, and checked on the dessert and (new) Christmas-inspired raw vegan truffles I’d whipped up the night before.

Faster than you can sing “Dashing through the bush / In a rusty Holden ute / Kicking up the dust / Esky in the boot”, our Christmas guests arrived and Christmas was truly off and running. After many hugs and much indulging in nibblies of dips, chips, smoked salmon, and cheeses, we opened up our stockings.

Or, for we children (ages 12 to 27 inclusive), our pillowcases. Win (blurrily)!

Behold, our Christmas sides! From front to back: roasted potatoes, carrots, onion, and fennel with rosemary and garlic; beetroot, walnut, and goat’s feta salad; braised red wine cabbage; wild rice and zucchini stuffing; marinated mushroom salad; and sweet potato casserole. There was also turkey, ham, cranberry relish, gravy, and cayenne-spiced toffee pickles, except for that last one being a lie. What isn’t a lie, though, is that our entire spread was gluten-free and almost entirely dairy-free.

For the beetroot, walnut, and goat’s feta salad, roast three beetroots then chop and toss in half of a dressing made with lemon-infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Toast around half a cup of walnuts in a pan until fragrant, then break into smaller pieces. Layer lettuce, beetroot, walnuts, and the rest of the dressing in a bowl, and then top with crumbled goat’s feta.

The marinated mushroom salad (also created by yours truly) involved whisking together lemon-infused olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, wholegrain mustard, honey, salt and pepper, and then tossing this through 400g of button mushrooms. Let the mushrooms soak up all the delicious marinade/dressing for a couple of hours, and then toss with fresh peppery baby rocket.

My brother’s contribution was a sweet potato casserole. I’ve always wanted to try this crazypants American sweet potato concoction, but have never quite had the courage on account of the fact that IT’S DESSERT PEOPLE THERE ARE MARSHMALLOWS INVOLVED SERIOUSLY WHAT ON EARTH REALLY?

‘Course, I’m the person who ate 11 desserts in one night earlier this year, so I’m not sure why the casserole phased me so.

Anyway, E.TeacherLord roasted three large sweet potatoes, mashed them with soy milk, Nuttelex, pumpkin pie spice, and egg, then baked it in a hot oven with marshmallows added right at the end.

Girl, get your hair out of your face! Heavens, it’s like I don’t even know how to groom myself properly.

My first casserole bite caused an apoplectic mental fit as my mind tried to understand the attack of sugar. However, half an hour later I was using my fork to scoop the casserole straight from the bowl into my mouth (and being chastised by mum for doing so), so clearly something about the marshmallows appealed to my sugar-lined soul.

Hey look! It’s my brother’s Christmas plate! Wheee!

Hey look! It’s my uncle’s dessert plate! Wheee! This one couldn’t be mine, you see, because I refuse to let Christmas pudding anywhere near my person and instead went for the Raspberry Whip (recipe to come), custard, and berries.

So that was Christmas. And what have we done? Another year over…

Ooops, wrong train of thought. I’m off now to make another batch of my Christmas truffles for a party tonight, but rest assured I’ll be back soon with more Christmas shenanigans involving leaping and moustaches.

Question Time: Have you ever had a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole? Does it gel with your soul?

2011 Christmas Part One: Sacrificing My Dignity To The Video Gods

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Hannah

Thank you to everyone who sent me (and my family) such wonderful Christmas wishes via my last two posts! I hope that you all had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas (or other holiday), filled with happiness, laughter, deliciousness, hugs, and fortune-telling fish. Although, come to think of it, that last may have been unique to my family.

I had such a splendiferous and spectacularity-filled weekend that there’s no way I can squeeze it into one post. Add together Christmas Eve lunch, the goodies I baked for presents, the myriad dishes we made for Christmas, the first half of Christmas Day filled with extended family, stockings, lunch, and laughter, and the second half of Christmas Day in which my immediate family and I had so much fun that I almost cried when I eventually had to drive home…

Yep. We’ve got a fair bit to get through.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been eating a lot these past few days, and are perhaps not in the best frame of mind to enjoy poking through someone else’s Christmas menu.

You may be too exhausted from all the planning that goes into, and the energy that suffuses, Christmas Day to be able to focus on stories about yum cha, cat conversations, or one of my favourite dessert recipes.

Consequently, instead of blogging about food, I’m sacrificing myself. My dignity. Entirely. For you.

I’ve never before posted a video of myself on this blog. Much less of video of my nincompitude in action. And I didn’t plan to.

But my brother received a camera for Christmas and, at around 9pm Sunday night, he started playing with it. I became his test subject, dutifully submitting myself to the fish-eye effect, the poster effect, and (here we go) the super-slow-motion video effect.

Please keep in mind that I never, not for a second, thought I would blog this video. If I had, I would have taken off the old cardigan I’d thrown on earlier. However, I also wouldn’t have been as free in my ridiculousness, and where’s the fun in that?

The story is this: my brother told me to jump as high as I could so that he could test the super-slow-motion video effect, and I did. But then he kept filming, and so I also… kept going. As I cavorted around the kitchen, my brother and mother dissolved into hysterical laughter. You can see, at the end of the video, the moment where I myself collapse into giggles.

After watching the video in slow motion and laughing until we couldn’t breathe, I decided that this video would be my Christmas gift to you. (The movement starts 15 seconds in, if you can be patient.) I am, of course, secretly terrified that I’ll lose readers by posting this. You might think less of me; you might never return. But I hope you will.

You see, what I’ve regretted most in my life are the things I didn’t have the courage to do.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing You An Increditasticful Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Hannah

To all my darling and beloved readers-friends who make this world of ours such a glitteringly incandescent place, I wish you the happiest, happiest, most increditasticful of holidays.

May your Christmas (if you celebrate it; otherwise your Sunday) be filled with hugs from cherished family members…

… even if, retrospectively, you realise that you used to look like you belonged to the opposite gender.

May the new outfit you receive on Christmas Day…

…bring you so much joy that you simply have to show everyone your Spirit Fingers.

May you feel like an angel as you whip up and/or enjoy eating delicious edible gifts and alternative desserts to the [dreaded] Christmas pudding…

…and may you remember with much happiness, and only a little sadness, the family members who are no longer with you.

But, best of all, may your every Christmas moment involve smiles, love, laughter, deliciousness, and at least one attempt at tricking everyone into thinking you’re the tree so that you get handed all the presents.

Every single one.

The Un-Christmas Post, with Bonus Hypocritical Recipes

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Hannah

Right now it seems like anyone who’s anyone in the food blogging world is writing about Christmas. Everywhere you turn, bloggers are offering up homemade truffles, deeply spiced cookies, caramelised nuts, jams, chocolate barks, anything flavoured with peppermint or eggnog, all bundled up in pretty jars or crinkling cellophane to be given to your nearest and dearest.

Or they’re showing you gluten-free stuffings, creative (nay, “festive”) vegetable or grain-based sides, shimmering cocktails, and new takes on Christmas pudding that inevitably make my stomach turn. At the very least, you’re being told about Christmas parties, fine dining restaurant menus, or how to make bath salts and candles.

Well, I could suggest you make Brigadeiros or Nutella Fudge.

Me? Not so much. I thought I’d offer you a little respite from holiday hollerings, and instead tell you a bedtime story. (While also giving you links to previous recipes that might be Christmas appropriate. Why not play for both sides?)

Last year, I made sweetly refreshing Raspberry Granita for Christmas lunch.

Once upon a time, Jenni and I had to fly to Sydney for work. This took place during my week of sickness, and so I arrived at the airport bright and early Monday morning feeling rather wonky.

Jenni showed up just as our plane began boarding and, as we made our way across the tarmac, I started telling her how worried I’d been that she’d miss the flight.

“Seriously, Jenni,” I said, nudging her with my elbow, “I was feeling really zelted when I thought you wouldn’t make it and I’d have to attend the meeting alone.”

“I’m sorry!” Jenni replied. “The self-service machine had issues with finding my ticket.”

There was a pause. Then I spoke, matter-of-factly but with an air of quiet surprise: “I just said ‘zelted’. That’s not a word.”

“Yes,” Jenni said. “I thought that was a bit strange.”

For the hot, hunky, smoky, mysterious and adventurous love of your life, I recommend my Spiced Fig, Pepita and Molasses Granola.

Many hours later, our meeting finished, Jenni and I hailed a taxi. En route back to the airport, we started giggling at the truly horrendous wedding dresses we were catching sight of in passing bridal shop windows (a bodice made of see-through lace with just a skerrick of heavier material over the nipple area does not a beautiful bride make).

My Chocolate Date Meringue Torte would make a great Christmas dessert too.

“Did you see that one?!” Jenni exclaimed.

“Holy smokes,” I gasped. “That apard classy shine.”

There was a pause.

“Apard?” Jenni repeated.

The was another pause.

“Jenni!” I wailed. “This is what happens to people when they’re having a stroke!”

“Oh, Hannah.”

Of course, healthy sweets like these Raw Vegan Date Coconut Cashew Treats never go astray either.

Do you want to know the worst part? Jenni’s “Oh, Hannah” wasn’t said in a tone of “don’t be silly” or even “what a witty comment”. It was said in a manner and cadence that conveyed, purely and simply, “how sad for you that you’re having a stroke”. Sure, she giggled, but I CAUGHT THE TONE. The tone never lies.

Nor do No-Bake Sunflower Coconut Honey Truffles.

The following, my friends, is therefore going to be my excuse on Christmas day:

“I’m so sorry, [beloved family member]. I surely did order your Christmas present, I promise, but unfortunately it won’t arrive until mid-January. But it’s not my fault, I swear! I was having a long extended stroke all through December.”

That’ll zelted ‘em for sure.

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Monthly Archives: December 2011