A book? Me?

I have decided to finally get off my booty and start working on a book. Yes, there are many good vegan cookbooks out there (and some stinkers) but I do have something to add to the conversation. What I am curious about is does anyone have anything they would like to see in a cookbook? Any recipe additions? Anything? Let me know.

Also, Jason and I are back to the gluten free diet for a while. To help us out, we ordered a new breadmaker!! It is a convection oven that is meant to make fluffy gluten free bread. When it comes, I will let you know how it works.

Now, without further delay, here is the new recipe. This will be in my book so let me know if you like the format!!

Lemon Blackberry Muffins

Makes 12

The dry ingredients

1 ¾ cups gluten free baking mix

2 teaspoons xantham gum
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

 The wet ingredients:

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil
¼ cup of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
1 cup of non-dairy milk
½ teaspoon lemon extract

 1 cup of large, fresh blackberries

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

Line a muffin tin with papers. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream together the oil and sugar. Add the lemon juice and ‘milk’, along with the lemon zest and lemon extract. Once combined, it should be thick, but still be able to be spooned into the muffin papers. Place a small layer of dough in each paper, then top with fruit. Repeat two more times. Once the muffin papers are full, sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, remove from the pan, and allow to cool completely before removing the papers.

What do I eat with this? Fresh hot coffee or tea would be perfect for these light breakfast muffins.

 

What equipment do I need? Measuring cups, spoons, bowls, mixing utensils, muffin papers, and a muffin tin.

What else can I do with this recipe? Instead of blackberries, use fresh plump blueberries, for lemon blueberry muffins. Or, even go a different route and use 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts mixed with 1/3 cup dried cherries for Walnut Cherry Lemon Muffins. Top with a generous sprinkle of walnuts and granulated sugar. But only do this if you want to impress everyone with your gourmet awesomeness.

 
What was the inspiration? I had lemons on my tree and blackberries that needed to be used. Sometimes, it is as simple as that.

 Any funny stories about this recipe? These were created after a local news channel wanted to feature me and my cooking classes on air. They wanted me to create what I was making that night, plus provide a lot of ‘healthy produce’. Knowing that all produce is healthy, I grabbed what looked good including a lot of berries. After getting only a few hours of sleep the night before I raced down to the studio, set up… and after 45 minutes they told me I was cancelled and to leave. I packed up my food, including the blackberries that became these muffins and left to get a nap before my cooking class that night.

A Small Treasure

Sometimes, small treasures pop up in unexpected places. I was doing some cooking and I used up all the spice in a jar that had a grinder top. Lots of spices come this way now. While I was looking at the little jar, inspiration struck. I took the top off and ran it through my dishwasher about 3 times, with lots of other dishes. That cleaned it out, but left some residue from the label, so I used a little Goo Gone to get rid of that. Then I had a nice clean bottle, as pictured.

What to fill it with? Well, you can add any spices you want. What about rock sugar, cassia chips and cracked allspice berries for a gourmet cereal topping? Or, grab some cheap smoked salt, add chipotle flakes, and perhaps a pink and black peppercorns for a table grinder that would add a spicy bite to anything. Really, the possibilities are endless, but you want all your spices to be about the same size.

Hope this provides some good inspiration for healthy, tasty eating.

TV time!

I just was on Channel 12 locally! It went so quickly, but I guess that is how it is. I have another TV spot on Thursday with Channel 3 locally at 9:45. If you watch it you can totally tease me about it later. :>

Food Politics

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to the Bad Kitty Bakery blog. I have taken some time off for various reasons, but it feels very good to be back. It coincides with me taking even better care of myself, spending more time with friends and family, and learning that you do not always have to put yourself first but you do have to put yourself in the running.

Really, though, returning to the blog is an act of activism for me. Paula Deen may have Diabetes type 2. Some other members of the vegan community started saying that she made herself sick with her food, and others. In essence, she deserved it. I cannot and will not accept that. A lot of politics have been taken over with people on one far side or another, with nothing in between. I see that happening in the food community as well. People like Michael Simon and Anthony Bourdain espouse the virtues of eating any and every animal. On our side, people who are healthy vegan doctors and their strict followers say Paula Deen ‘needs to donate her body to science’. It’s time for some food moderates.

This blog will just feature good old fashioned vegan food. Some of it is good for you, some isn’t. It will all taste divine and be done with love.

The first recipe is for my favorite salad dressing. I also really love dipping cucumber slices in this. There is something about the coolness of the cucumber and the richness of the dressing that makes your toes curl right up. Best of all, it is only 4 simple ingredients.

Enjoy.

Agave Mustard Dressing
Serves 2-4, or me with two cucumbers sliced up, watching the latest episode of Storage Wars.

1 tablespoon of white miso
1 tablespoon of agave
1 tablespoon of white balsamic vinegar
½ tablespoon or 1 ½ teaspoons of mustard

Whisk all ingredients together, enjoy. Will last at least two or three days in your refrigerator.