My Favourite Recipes from 2012, Month By Month

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Hannah

Judging by almost every blog in my Google Reader at the moment, I should be writing a “2012 In Review” post. I can’t, though. I can’t sum up this year in one post, this vibrant intoxicating shattering incredible year which has seen me power through crazy-stressful work situations then leap into a wild overseas adventure culminating in moving to a country I’d never visited before, a year in which I cried at the funeral of a dear friend then found a squillion new friends overseas, a year where I both inflicted and received heart shatterings, a year that led to belief and action and fear and hope all coalescing into a brilliant shining swirl of everythingeverything inside of me.

You see? I can’t write coherently. What I can do, though, is rummage through my blog to pick out a favourite recipe from each month of 2012. That I can do for you.

January:

Raspberry Whip (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)

February:

Coconut Date Treats of Raw Vegan Sweetness

March:

Fancypants Magic Bars

April:

Pecan and Coconut Friands with Raspberries (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)

May:

Poppy Seed Cake (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)

June:

Golden Syrup Spiced Nuts with Sesame (Gluten-Free and Vegan)

July:

Black Forest Cake Truffle Bites, High-Raw and Vegan

August (except this was from June, because I was gallivanting in August):

Lemon and Poppy Seed Coconut Flour Cupcakes (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)

September:

Raw Vegan Mini Huckleberry Cheesecakes

October (cheating again! I was adjusting to Canadialand that month):

Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse Cups

November:

Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites

December:

Vegan Hot Lavender Cocoa

With an honourary mention to:

Almond and Coconut Cake with Raspberries (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free), because it was a reader favourite.

Happy New Year, everyone! I can’t wait to find out what 2013 has in store for us.

Belmonte Raw, Toronto: Raw Vegan Food, Fun, and Friendship

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Hannah

Yesterday, I awoke for the first time to a Toronto blanketed in white. The snow is quite pretty to look at (from inside), and makes curling up on the couch for hours with a book and a box of vegan dark chocolate mint thins seem even more enticing.

However, the cold also makes me want to recall and relive past sunny days, such as the wonderful Sunday back in November when Lisa, Ashley, Dani, Nicole and I met for lunch at Belmonte Raw.

As it was a Sunday, Lisa and I started our day with coffee and crosswords. This is also known as Getting Our Learn On, or We Are So Smart, We Are So Smart, S-M-R-T! (Sunday coffee and crosswords with Lisa is currently one of my most favourite things about living in Toronto. Just so you know.)

Belmonte Raw is a vegan raw food boutique and producer/distributor of organic raw cleanses throughout Toronto. Carol Belmonte, the mastermind behind Belmonte Raw, is enthusiastically dedicated to showcasing the healing power and deliciousness of plant-based raw food, and her Leslieville boutique provided the perfect sunny spot for five kale-lovin’ Toronto-based ladies to meet, talk, and laugh over lunch. In fact, we were all so focused on chatting and eating that I forgot to take a group photo, but I can say with utter conviction that Ashley, Dani, Lisa, and Nicole are gorgeous, inspiring, and heart-soaring women, and I am delighted to know them.

I can also say with the same conviction that my Asian Kale Salad of kale, carrots, beets, jicama, lentils, sprouted beans, cilantro, green onion, cashews, hemp seeds and sunflower sprouts with a ginger tamari vinaigrette was utterly scrumptious. So fresh, so zinging, so energy-giving!

Carol generously gave us a platter of Raw Nachos to share, which I believe included raw corn chips, raw taco “meat” made with nuts and spices, a nacho cashew-based cheese sauce, fresh tomatoes, and sunflower sprouts. So good. SO GOOD.

And then the magic kept coming! Carol gave each of us a glass of jewel-like fresh pink juice, which matched the raw beetroot atop our salads perfectly. I felt a little like a princess, drinking it. Thank you, Carol!

A morning of crosswords, a wonderful lunch with new friends, and an exploration of Leslieville’s fantastic Arts Market which led to the purchase of a gorgeous Scotch/Rye ring with a tiny slice of cake on top and, all told, it was a pretty wonderful Sunday.

Chocolatepalooza: Zazubean Salted Toffee, Banana, and Maca, and Chip’n Dipped Peanut Butter Cup

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Hannah

What you want most after the Christmas period and its associated feasting is to read about chocolate, right? Lots of chocolate? Rich, sweet, dark, milk, candy-studded, curl-up-on-the-couch-with-your-new-book-a-cup-of-tea-and-this chocolate, right?

I thought so. Me too. Not for us the languid cries of “oil-free salads! master cleanse! no sugar for a week!” No, you and I, we’re beyond that. We see the sugar drifting away as others proclaim that they simply. cannot. eat. another. bite. of. pudding, and we reach out with delighted hands for just a little bit more. As always, I’ve got your (chocolate) back.

Zazubean Cheeky Dark Chocolate With Salted Toffee, Banana, and Maca

Be the sassy banana. Go on. BE THE SASSY BANANA.

What does that even mean? Is this a Canadian thing? I don’t know how to be a sassy banana. What does being a sassy banana entail? Is this why I’m single? I don’t understand any of this. It troubles my soul.

Zazubean Organic Chocolate is a Canadian chocolate company that produces “dark, organic, fair-trade chocolate for PMS, anxiety, energy, sexual stamina, and more”. Make of that what you will.

I was impressed with the plethora of freeze-dried banana and salted toffee bits mixed through this Zazubean 70% dark chocolate bar. The aroma wasn’t noticeably banana-y or toffee-y, but there was something a little complex hiding in the notes of vanilla sweetness.

The flavour was rich with a nice depth of darkness, and the maca contributed an interesting smoky woodsy flavour. The chocolate itself had a red-fruit tang, and the toffee was crisp albeit not strong in caramel or salt notes. Despite being able to see a great many pillows of freeze-dried banana, only rarely was I able to taste anything reminiscent of banana.

I enjoyed this chocolate, but I wanted more from it. More toffee flavours, more banana notes, more smoky maca. And I still want to know how to be a sassy banana.

Chip’n Dipped Chocolatier Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

We know how I feel about chocolate peanut butter cups. Thus it should come as no surprise that I couldn’t resist this Chip’n Dipped Chocolatier bar when I spotted it in New York’s Union Square Whole Foods store. “A mini peanut butter cup in every bite?” Oh yes.

Except, well, NOT ENOUGH. Not enough mini peanut butter cups. The mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups were studded on the back of the bar rather than mixed through, which meant the bulk of the bar was plain milk chocolate. Thankfully, the milk chocolate wasn’t overly cloying in its sweetness, though it was certainly sugary. The chocolate had pleasant enough caramel, custard, and malt flavours that worked well with the mini peanut butter cups.

The mini chocolate peanut butter cups were lovely. The peanut butter filling was much smoother than is found in a Reese’s cup, but Chip’n Dipped’s cups had a similar slight salt kick, and this brought out the peanut flavour.

Chip’n Dipped Chocolatier is based in Huntington, New York, and produces a variety of handmade chocolate bars and cookies. Although this particular chocolate bar was a bit too sweet for me, I’d definitely give the dark chocolate cinnamon graham or dark chocolate wasabi almond bars a try if given half a chance.

little tree, by e.e. cummings

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Hannah

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you out there in this incandescent topsy-turvy glorious shattering magical world of ours. As my throat is currently aching with how much I wish I could be with my family back in Australia, I thought I’d leave today’s Christmas post in more capable hands. I couldn’t find anything from my favourite poet that seemed appropriate for the festive season, so instead I offer you e.e. cummings.

little tree

- e.e. cummings

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid

look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”

Vegan Divas Vegan Spelt Chocolate Brownie

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Hannah

Hey, remember that time I dedicated an entire post to extolling the rich gloriousness of the Sticky Fingers Vegan Chocolate Brownie in all its fudgy dense insanity?

Well, a few weeks after that vegan brownie experience in Washington, D.C., I found myself buying a different vegan brownie from Vegan Divas in New York City.

The Vegan Divas chocolate brownie would surely be the yin to the Sticky Fingers chocolate brownie yang. Or the yang to its yin. I don’t know. Do yin and yang actually have distinct/inherent properties? Hmm. Vague research has led me to understand that yin and yang are complementary rather than opposing forces, which means that this whole paragraph is moot. After all, I’m fairly certain that Vegan Divas and Sticky Fingers can live without each other. Though perhaps we benefit from having both in existence? Perhaps Vegan Divas’ healthful focus is balanced by Sticky Fingers’ decadence?

Here’s what I’m trying to say: Sticky Fingers’ vegan chocolate brownie was richness from start to finish, whereas Vegan Divas promotes its spelt chocolate brownie as not only vegan but 100% natural, “low-cal” (ugh, spare me), and high in fiber.

Funnily enough, I far preferred Vegan Divas’ brownie to Sticky Fingers’ brownie, although I expect most people would feel the opposite. This is largely due to my antipathy for chocolate desserts, as I prefer my chocolate straight-up in bar form rather than muddled into cloying overwhelming one-dimensional sweetness in dessert form. (I’ll choose a raspberry, caramel, chestnut, or fruit-based dessert over a chocolate dessert every time.)

Objectively speaking, Sticky Fingers’ brownies are probably more what chocolate brownies should be; the one I had was extremely chocolatey, gooey, rich, and sweet. The Vegan Divas brownie, on the other hand, was drier in texture, more understated, and had a cocoa rather than melted chocolate taste. It was sweet without being overwhelmingly sugary, but also benefited from a plethora of tiny chocolate chips that contributed bursts of concentrated chocolateiness. It was simply more my style.

Plus, I was able to eat the Vegan Divas brownie warmed up with peanut butter on top as “frosting” without feeling the need to eat an entire bag of salt and vinegar chips afterwards to balance out the sugar. That’s some serious bonus points right there.

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Monthly Archives: December 2012