Luscious Life
A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go on a detox to cleanse our bodies of, well, toxins. We ended up eating a mainly vegan, gluten-free, no caffeine, no alcohol diet for about 2 weeks. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad and we really did feel better. In fact, we’re still following some of the same rules! Of course we added alcohol back into our diets, c’mon guys, it’s summer…
Even though we were cutting out a lot of our normal foods, we still wanted to be able to eat tasty dishes while sticking to our diet so we did quite a bit of research. While recipe-searching, we remembered Lagusta of Lagusta’s Luscious and Bluestocking BonBons. Lagusta recently approached me (Caroline) to create a banner for her vegan chocolate company and that’s when we also discovered her amazing New Paltz, NY-based vegetarian home meal delivery company (everything looked soooo yummy). When we started the detox, we turned to Lagusta for some recipes and a little get-to-know-you.
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Food Adventure: Oaxaca
This is a special food adventure because I (Caroline, speaking) got to travel all the way to Oaxaca, Mexico to go adventuring. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but, we, numnum girls, LOVE mexican food. Moving to New York from California was hard on our burrito/taco lovin’ mouths because it was so hard to come by, thankfully times have changed.
Oaxaca is known for their chocolates, coffee, and MOLÉ. Oaxaca is an amazing place for food, everything was super tasty and crazy cheap. We had street food most of the time but it ended up being way better than fancy restaurant meals.
Our first meal was at the local, organic market which sets up every Sunday at the ferrocarrîl museo, an old railroad yard. Dining al fresco, underneath the trees with fresh corn, squash, squash blossoms underneath the trees was the perfect welcome. All the tortillas were being freshly made in front of us, blue corn tortillas were soft and slightly crisp. There’s also a vendor from Italy, whose wife is from Korea (after having met in India, then moving to Oaxaca) so they had some pastries, pizzas, a couple of korean items, and a wonderful chai.
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Eat Your Heart Out: Heart Sandwich Cookies
Looking for a V-day treat? Look no further. We’d probably eat anything that was slapped together with Nutella, but these heart-shaped cookies have the added bonus of being especially tasty AND adorable. We put them on our “to-bake” list the minute we saw them in Everyday Food. As long as you have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, they’re pretty easy to make. Just don’t save ‘em till the last minute (we learned from experience!), the dough has to chill for two hours before you can roll it out. The cookies have a not-too-sweet taste (the 1/3 cup whole wheat flour is a nice touch) and the course salt in the dough makes that layer of chocolate-hazelnut spread taste even better (who knew that was possible?). As usual, Martha’s come through with a winner. These are way too good to be relegated to Valentine’s fare. Heart-shaped or not, we’re making these puppies are gonna perennial. Continue reading Eat Your Heart Out: Heart Sandwich Cookies…
Rooty toot toots and rummy tum tums!
In our household, come holiday time, we like to get into the festivities. We set the mood with a tree and lights, play holiday music and sip hot apple cider while we bake our favorite treats to give as gifts. This weekend, I made gingerbread men, sparkling ginger chip cookies (from 101 Cookbooks), and our favorite granola courtesy of Souther’s Mom.
Now, surely you veteran cooks and bakers know this already, but seeing as we just made this discovery, we feel the need to share: A kitchen timer is key to baking the BEST cookies; no burnt men, no brown bottoms, just golden deliciousness. So if you’ve been skipping out on using a timer, trust me, it’s worth it. Your mouth will thank you. Want to make some gingerbread men of your own? Click through for the recipe.
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Pie, Oh My!
Apologies for the lack of posts recently. We’ve been falling behind BUT fall is here which only means food to fatten us up for winter warmth and more cozy home time which means more posts!
But before summer ends,we stopped by Blue Stove Bakery (415 Graham Ave) after our trip out to Caffe Capri which is right down the street. And boy, this place has the goods and is as cute as can be.
The place is decorated with vintage wares, mason jars, old school pie pans.
And on to the pies (oh my!)… A tip when going out to try treats, take friends so you have more choices to try!
The end of Market Week
We realize we’re late on posting about the final meals of Market Week but better late than never! We were just too busy eating all the deliciousness.
Capresé Sandwiches
Squash Gratin ala eatmakeread
Fresh Peach Pie with Créme Fraiche and Streusal
Our final meals ended with Capresé sandwiches, tomatoes and basil from my (Caroline speaking) rooftop garden. Having a small garden in your windowsill, fire escape, or even rooftop for herbs (and veggies if you have the space) is really rewarding, in more ways than one. This sandwich is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G(ly) easy, summer sandwich. Just don’t make plans to make out with anyone for a while…
Next up, we went back to Kelly’s Market Week from last year and made her delicious squash gratin. Make note to self, don’t make this when you’ve made plans for after dinner. It takes a little bit of time for the cheeses to ooze through perfectly, but it is worth the wait.
And finally, a fresh peach pie… mmmmm-MMMMMM!!!! The slight tartness from the cremé fraiche mixture was just perfect for this peach pie. A perfect way to end Market Week. Continue reading The end of Market Week…