Monthly Archives: July 2008

Caribbean Dream Pie

Here’s a recipe I finally got around to making from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I love her recipes but often find most of them daunting and time consuming, and I end up being intimidated and hesitant to make them. Well, this last week I got up the courage and finally said hell with it, I need to put some wear and tear into this cookbook. Over the weekend, I made falafel, a marinated cauliflower salad, and a dilled mint yogurt cucumber salad (all which I will post later). Here’s a dessert that caught my eye one day and I dog-eared it, being that it seemed relatively easy to make and would be quite good, since I’m a big fan of banana pies, especially banana cream pies. Adding a little sliced mango to the mix would be even better. I even had all of the ingredients on hand, although it required a hell of a lot of juice squeezing (and I later realized it called for fresh lime juice but I only had lemons which worked just as well)–I had to go steal some lemons from my neighbors tree because I was running out of juice. Anyway, it was a relatively easy pie to make, and it made a dual pie crust that I will use for something later this week (maybe a pumpkin pie?), but it was a little too sweet for my taste. The sweetened condensed milk was WOAH too sweet. But none the less, if it had a little less sugar, it would be just right. Just like a key lime pie with bananas and mango. The crust crumbled and didn’t stay together too well when I sliced it out of the pan, therefore it didn’t keep its form. But it was yummy.

Caribbean Dream Pie from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
Makes 1 rich 9-inch pie

SWEET CRUMB CRUST:

2 cups crushed graham crackers (easily done in a food processor)

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/4 cup finely minced pecans

6 Tbs. butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan, building a handsome 1/2-inch ridge around the edge. You will have more than enough to fill the pie pan–sprinkle the rest in another pan. Place both in the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

FILLING:

1 14 or 15-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbs. grated lime rind

1/2 cup plus 1 Tbs. fresh lime juice
2 bananas, peeled and sliced

1/2 a ripe mango, peeled and sliced

1. Pour the milk into a medium-sized bowl.

2. Add the grated rind and juice, and whisk for a few minutes until the milk thickens.

3. Layer the banana and mango sliced in the baked, cooled crust. Pour the thickened milk mixture over the fruit, spreading it into place. Sprinkle the top with extra crumb mixture, and chill until cold. Serve cold.

The Kitchn and other neat stuff…

Decoration!

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Just had to share a few of my recent purchases that will be making my room even more like my own nest. Right now I’m on one of those spending/decorating rampages where I’m just so inspired by everything and want to make my living space as enjoyable as possible. Because I deserve it, especially after taking a summer class (which finally ended yesterday! woohoo!). My room is seriously turning into a forest full of birds, nests, and trees. I know what I love, and that’s a good thing. It’s all pretty much coming together.

This log lamp base from Urban Outfitters.

Matched with this forest-themed lamp shade.
Vintage bird duvet sham with two bird pillows and euro forest pillow from West Elm.

And seven (five pictured) vintage bird prints I just scored off of eBay recently!

So yeah, I’m pretty stoked. Everything is going to be matchy-matchy. Here are some other cool things I’m drooling over…

These awesome photorealistic reproductions of wood floor mats from Urban Outfitters. I love the distressed log cabin and painted floor look!

This birch tree wall mural! UO has some really cool stuff right now…

This pillowcase set from UO that I originally had my eye on… I’m glad I waited though and purchased the one from West Elm.

This dandelion bird wall art!

These wall decals on this dresser!

This tree stencil which you can use on pretty much anything (don’t let me get a hold of that…)

This “Deer In The Forest” wall art.

This birch tree light pendant from Pottery Barn.

These leaf plates (on sale!) at Pottery Barn.

Another birch tree mural…

This harvest branch mirror from PB.

This antler wall shelf from West Elm.

These two mirrors from West Elm: the Branch mirror and Faux Bois mirror.

There’s so much more to show but this is all I have time for for now!

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake (Minus the Reese’s)

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Ok, just a warning, what you are about to encounter is pretty much the most amazing chocolate peanut butter cake you’ll ever be able to make in the universe. Pretty much this is THE chocolate peanut butter cake I’ve always dreamt of making, creating, and eating. After some inspiration, (and how can you go wrong? Chocolate and peanut butter does do a body good, and it won the #1 spot on Peanut Butter Boy’s ‘The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition’ just recently…) I just had to follow and make my own masterpiece. The past few days I’ve toyed around with the idea of doubling the cupcake recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, knowing that I wanted to make a double 9-inch cake and one batch of 12 cupcakes makes only one 9-inch cake. Therefore, I doubled the entire thing and it worked out perfectly! I love VCTOTW not only because everything is vegan and super yummy, but because of how simple the ingredients are and how quick and easy everything is to make! They’re not intimidating or time consuming. It allows you to spend a suitable amount of time baking in the kitchen without going crazy and having to do anything too challenging or out of the ordinary. From now on, anytime I want to make a cake, I’m going to just double any number of the cupcake recipes and make a super duper incredibly delicious vegan extravaganza. Just stay tuned… oh! And not to mention the peanut butter frosting came out PERFECTLY after I tried making this one twice. At first the consistency came out way too sugary and unspreadable… super disappointing. I wasted an entire jar of peanut butter (it probably had something to do with that too… it wasn’t mixing very well with the oil and was giving me a hell of a time) and decided to give the one from VCTOTW another try. The first time I made that one I incorporated the molasses and hated the flavor and texture. The second time I made it I forgot the shortening. This time I made it, I don’t know how or why (maybe it was the greatest organic peanut butter on earth that I love from Trader Joe’s), it came out the best. Which is a relief. Because I’ve been looking for the peanut butter frosting and this is it. No more searching.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Makes a double 9″ cake

For the cake:

2 cups soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup all-purpose whole wheat baking flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and oil your pans. Dust them with a little flour if you’d like. 2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain. 3. Pour into cake pans, making sure to evenly distribute the batter. Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool (10-15 minutes) before taking out of pan.
For the peanut butter frosting:
1/4 cup margarine, softened2 tablespoons shortening (preferably the trans-fat free organic brand)1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (crunchy works, too)1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar1 to 2 tablespoons soy milk
1. With electric handheld mixer, cream together margarine and shortening at medium speed till smooth. Add peanut butter and vanilla and beat until very smooth, 2-3 minutes. Beat in sugar; mixture will be very stiff. Dribble in soy milk a little at a time, beating continuously till frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.
Chop up a bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups (the smaller ones) and put them on top of the first cake you frost so that there will be some in the middle between the layers. Then frost the rest of the cake and go craaaaazy with whatever you have left! Half ‘em, chop em, however you do it, have fun and enjoy the greatest heavenly creation you’ve just made because it deserves golden ribbons.

Chocolate Cake, Party Pictures, and Owl Beer!

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So many things to post, so little time! I guess the only way to start off is to present you with the most amazing packaged chocolate cake mix there is out there to buy on the market. It’s not a Betty Crocker or Pillsbury brand, but an organic, gluten and trans-fat free “healthy” one. Pamela’s Products makes a wide variety of cookie, cake, frosting, and other baking mixes that will leave you more than satisfied. They are beyond good. We usually have this chocolate cake about once a month on average in our house. There are so many ways to dress it up and make it your own. Last week we had a family gathering dinner and this simple and easy to make cake turned out very elegant and tasty. A little raspberry jam in between the layers, sprinkled with powdered sugar and fresh raspberries. I’d have to say that besides peanut butter and chocolate being the #1 best combination of things ever, raspberries and chocolate comes in at a close second, most assuredly.

Here are some other photos from the same event:

And here are some new posters I put up in my room recently:

Other than that, I’ve been going to the farmers market a lot recently and have been enjoying that and taking tons of pictures. Speaking of which, last weekend when I went to the market at the college, I met Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats! She recognized me and thought that since I was taking pictures, it had to be me, the ‘Baking Bird’ girl. It’s good to know there’s other Santa Cruz bloggers out there that appreciate good food and the farmers market and carry on great blogs! It was so nice to meet her. Check out her blog if you haven’t already!

Today I discovered this great beer that I’d die to try: Hitachino Nest Beer. It’s made by a Japanese brewery called Kiuchi that has made sake for almost 200 years. The bottles, which really got me and caught my eye, feature a cartoon-like graphic of an owl. And not only that, it’s called NEST BEER. HELLO PEOPLE, WAS I FREAKING OUT? YES, AND I STILL AM. I need to get my hands on this beer, ASAP. Plus, the flavors available sound amazing–besides the regular white ale, weizen, pale ale, red rice ale, etc, the sweet stout has a mixture of roasted coffee and chocolate and there’s a ginger spiced ale! I’ve looked everywhere online as to where I might be able to get my hands on this stuff, but the closest place looks like at a beer store in San Francisco since they only sell wholesale online. There has to be somewhere other than that! There’s rumors that some Whole Foods stores carry it, so I might try that first. But yeah, check out those labels! I can’t take the cuteness and am so glad that something like this exists in the world!

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