Grown-Up Rocky Road (only kind of a metaphor!)

I am contributing some gluten-free treats to the Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti that is happening tomorrow at Moo Shoes. The folks at Chicago Soy Dairy generously sent me a free bag of Dandies (a.k.a the most precious marshmallows EVER) to use for the bake sale!

When I was ripping off improving this recipe, I realized that the Dandies come in 10 oz bags, just like the less adorable marshmallows that a lot of recipes call for, making for super-easy conversion. Dandies are cute AND smart.

Usually when I buy Dandies I eat the entire bag before I can cook anything with them. What is the best thing you’ve made with Dandies?

Grown-Up Rocky Road for Haiti

1 (heaping) cup of your favorite gluten-free, vegan chocolate chips
1 T Earth Balance
1/3 cup MimicCreme (I realize this is probably a hard-to-find ingredient for most people, but it’s an AWESOME gluten-free, vegan cream substitute. I am thinking that So Delicious coconut creamer would work here too, but I didn’t try it.)
1/2 bag (eye ball it) Dandies marshmallows, cut it half
3/4 cup sliced almonds
Sea salt

1. Cut Dandies and combine with almonds in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Melt chocolate chips with MimicCreme and Earth Balance over very low heat stirring often.
3. When chocolate chips are melted, pour over Dandies and almonds. Stir until combined.
4. Pour onto parchment lined baking sheet and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with sea salt.
5. Set in refrigerator for as long as you can stand it. Cut and serve.

Wordless Wednesday: Cotton Candy Clouds

Best Yet Market & stuff Michael Pollan wouldn’t eat

I LOVE grocery shopping. I am really not sure how to explain how much I love grocery shopping. Even in New York. Even when I have to throw elbows in the Columbus Circle Whole Foods. LOVE IT. It would be nice, however, every once in a while, to not have to be on the supermarket defensive. Enter Best Yet Market.

If only there were a Regretsy for processed cheese food...

Best Yet Market is the sort of place that carries Bacon Cheddar processed cheese food. Serious Eats NY tipped me off to this grocery store just like the ones in the real America. Turns out, it’s in my neighborhood, in the shadow of the super-scenic Con-ed plant. Best Yet is also the sort of place that carries 3 (!) flavors of Marshmallow Fluff. You don’t believe me, do you?

Fun fact: I thought my mom made up the word “fluffernutter,” until very recently when heard the fluffernutter jingle. No, really. The main event:

I am a sucker for unintentionally retro packaging. I also bought:

The PB & CO was almost $2 cheaper than Whole Foods and the olive oil was $6.99 for this gigantic jug. Also, I’ve had trouble finding Silk Unsweetened Organic at the Key Food and C-Town by me, but not so at Best Yet. Moral of the story is, if you live in New York City and want to feel like you’re grocery shopping in Ohio, go to Best Yet. I don’t know that I’d vouch for their produce, but there’s a parking lot (!), wide aisles, and it was practically empty when I went. If you are not also excited by supermarkets, then sorry for this.

Scanner Sunday

Kind of like Wordless Wednesday, except I just got a chance to scan a bunch of my “real” photos and upload them to Flickr.

Port Authority Greenmarket. Stop Laughing.

Feel free to disagree with me here, but Port Authority is a pretty awful place. When I moved to New York City, it was the first thing I encountered and I can’t believe that I didn’t turn around and hop a bus right back out of there.

But, let’s not dwell. The phenomenal CENYC has done the impossible: brought a little spot of vegetable happiness to the otherwise dreary (dreary doesn’t really describe it, but I said I wasn’t going to dwell…) Port Authority.

Cute, right? The market is Thursdays from 8am-6pm. I stopped on my way to work, so I could get the best selection. There are three stands: one with apples and maple syrup (sorry, apple people, I don’t know what farm you are from), SURU wine from L.I., and Katchkie Farm, which had a lot of prepared food as well as some winter produce! I remember trying SURU’s Rosé at the New Amsterdam Market. I have an awful memory, so this means it is good. This week, I am going to try to save my allowance and buy some.

I got this neat dried pepper from Katchkie farm, which the lady told me was a 7 in hotness? Anyone know what that means? Will I cry after eating it?

I kept the pepper on my desk all day Thursday to confuse co-workers. I also got some eggs.

Due to my somewhat fraught relationship with eggs, I try really hard to buy them only at the greenmarket. I usually make the trip in to the Union Square Saturday market to do that, so it was nice to be able to buy them on my way to work.

On my short walk from Port Authority to my office, I got an americano from the Dean & Deluca in the lobby of the New York Times building. I kind of hate Dean & Deluca, but the tiny $3 (?!) americano was actually worth it.

All-Oat Gluten-Free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies or Where Have You Been All My Life?!

I wish that I had taken pictures of the results the first time I tried to make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Do I need to tell you it was a disaster? I was reminded of this recently when I saw that Mary at Mitten Machen had (bravely!) posted pictures of her gluten-free, vegan cookie successes and failures. In this type of baking, when it’s bad, it’s bad.

I found this recipe on the PPK and threw it together one night. I never seem to get around to baking until I am half asleep. I took shortcuts and these still turned out amazing. I didn’t have any brown sugar. I used water instead of soymilk. I didn’t combine the dry ingredients before adding them to to the wet. I blame Isa and the oat flour for the resilience of these cookies.

I discovered this oat flour when I was home, where it is manufactured (!). So, it was local until I flew it across the country in my suitcase. It’s the only type of flour in these cookies. The texture is really impressive and they keep MUCH better than other gluten-free baked goods. Gluten-free oat disclaimer here.

I am going to make these again (soon!) and probably increase the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar and try adding applesauce instead of soymilk.

TGIF or Gluten-Free Mac & Cheese

I don’t think I can do a restaurant review because I feel silly every time I use the sort of food adjectives you’re supposed to use to describe food from restaurants. Gooey, rich, toothsome, lush, yummy. Check out the third entry for “toothsome” in the dictionary. Right?!

All I am going to say is if you are ever anywhere near S’mac, you should go. It’s good.

Wordless Wednesday: Office Party

Blueberry Almond GRRRRRrrranola

my cooking companions (blackberry and oven mit) snuck in the pic

I’ve been doing a lot of growling lately. Hence, GRRRRRrrranola. I left my office yesterday and growled audibly (work has been great lately, but our office is FREEZING and this makes me grumpy). Anyway, our office neighbor heard me and (from the look on his face) wondered. Just wondered.

On twitter I said that my new year’s resolution was to make more pies, which is true but has nothing whatsoever to do with the new year. The truth is, I am not really the resolutin’ type. If I was going to make the type of resolution that people make it would be to be less… grumbly.

This granola really helps the grumbles and not just the tummy kind. I adapted it from 500 Vegan Recipes, by Celine and Jonie, which I managed to score downstairs at The Strand (aka: half-price!). It feels like a major accomplishment because you can’t really buy legit gluten-free granola in stores, IMHO. I showed this to everyone who came into my apartment this week and said “Look! It looks like real granola!” Boyfriend tried some right from the jar… and kept eating. Win.

Blueberry Almond GRRRRRrrranola

This recipe calls for certified gluten-free oats. If you are unfamiliar with them, read up. Some gluten-free folks cannot tolerate them and/or decide it’s better not to consume them. You’ve been warned!

1 cup certified gluten-free oats
1/4 cup raw sliced almonds
1/4 cup almond meal
pinch of salt

1/4 cup agave
2 T canola oil
1/2 t almond extract

1/3 cup dried blueberries

1. Preheat oven and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients except the blueberries in a large bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl, combine oil, agave, and almond extract.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until everything is coated.
5. Bake for 8 minutes. Stir.
6. Continue to bake until golden. The original recipe says this will be 10 more minutes, but for me it was closer to 6-8. Agave browns things up quickly, so just keep an eye on it.
7. Remove from oven, stir in blueberries, and return to baking sheet to cool completely.

Raw Food: Potatoes & Etc.

On Christmas Day, my mom was peeling and slicing potatoes to boil and mash. Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnndd… she popped one in her mouth RAW. I don’t even know. Her explanation for this behavior was that raw potatoes are good for your complexion. Question mark.

So, I asked the oracle. The consensus seems to be that the raw potato would actually need to be applied to the skin for the raw-potato-eater to experience any benefits. Love you, Mom!

I had returned home ready to bake until I dropped, but realized that I forgot to bring xanthan gum. I would. So, sister and I made these pumpkin cupcakes from Simply Recipes and I made these. These recipes are great if a) you say “damn the man” to spending $18+ on some weird slimy powder OR b) you are freaked out that GMO corn is in everything after reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. For better or worse, I am on team xanthan. The cupcakes were fab. My raw-potato-eater asked for the recipe and she could eat the gorgeous apple pie.

I got an extra day at home (thanks, United)! I spent that day drinking this coffee

and watching sister eat this cookie.