Eat Dance Live

Every weekend, I really look forward to reading Angela's Recipe Link Love . Once a week, she delights all her readers with absolutely yummy looking pictures of others people's food. It's fantastic, and really gives me new ideas on how to be creative in the kitchen. Because it's Lent and since we've established I'm psychotic already, I decided I'd start by sharing the yummiest vegan baked goods I've found online. These have often been used as my go-to potluck recipes, you know the ones to impress your non-vegan friends with vegan dessert recipes. (In my attempt to share the yummy-ness in its full unadultarated glory, I did use the photos they had up on their blog. Since they are directly linked, I figured it would be okay! For those involved, please let me know if it's not.) (never)homemaker's Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Cake with Vegan Frosting In the fall, I used to make this cake for my dad all the ti...

When I was in high school, if I ever asked a friend if I could come over to their place for an impromptu baking session, their first question would always be "What's wrong? Are you okay?" When I shared a place with housemates and they came home to the wonderful aroma of carrot cake or banana bread, someone would always asked "Okay, who pissed off Chantal?" In both those instances, 95% of the time they were right... I confess, I'm an emotional baker. I know I'm not the only person to think this, but baking has always been my primary method of coping with anger, sadness, frustration, stress, or some combination of those four emotions. I don't know when that habit started... it was probably when my babysitter Evelyn taught me to bake banana bread from scratch for the first time when I was about 13. Ever since that day, whenever I was pissed, whenever I'd gone through some tragic teenage heartbreak, or when I'd just had a bad day, I woul...

Does anyone else feel like like they've really put themselves on the line when you do something as simple as bake a batch of brownies for your friends? I don't know if it's just me, but I put a frighteningly large amount of emotions into my food prep. It's like the most OCD perfectionist hiding inside me comes out and I have to make sure that what I'm making is perfect. I know it's because I'm of the strong belief that the food you make is a representation of yourself, and that I guess I hold the same standard for the food I give to the way I live my life, but whatever I'm making, whether living or cooked, it has to have the perfect taste, texture, smell, and visual appeal. Some people say that this feeling comes from the idea that sharing food you've made to others is one of the best ways for someone to know you in a deeper way than simply through what they can superficially see. The way you cook cannot tell lies. Through the way you present and pr...

I love the world when there is just snow, when all is quiet, when the cars don't dare come out. That's been the state of DC since friday afternoon and it's been wonderful! When the quiet does break it's with the sounds of happiness. I wonder if people realize how much happier they are when the cars aren't running, how they actually talk to one another and share in the similar experiences. I've seen people on cross-country skies, sleds, and walking the happiest looking dogs! I'm sending out a care package up to my cousin, who is up at Brown, and it's also high time I posted a new recipe. To deal with the snow and cold, I'm sending up some superfood mix (goji berries, turkish mulberries, cacao nibs), hemp-based lip balm, some of Amazing Gras s 's Green Super Food, and yummy baked vegan goods. I figured that one of the best things to do to cope with the cold winter days is nothing better than the epitome of comfort baking: oatmeal raisin cookies! Th...

We spent all day at my parents' place today so I'm a little behind in my interesting blogging ideas. On the way there, we did get to head out for more yummy grocery goodness from MOM's , still the best grocery store in the world. Speaking of moms, mine makes the most amazing veggie stew (just veggies and water in a dutch oven) which we had for dinner alongside a wonderfully huge salad. Because I always weekly bake for my dad, who now only eats my vegan baked goods due to health reasons, I also had the chance to whip up a new marbled brownie-blondie cake thing for him which turned out wonderfully (obviously not raw, but man did it look good!). We also got to watch today's Iron Chef , which featured Cristeta Comeford , the White House Chef, and whose challenge was to feature produce from the Obamas' White House Garden. Though most dishes were way too deep fried and covered in some form or meat and/or lard for my taste, both teams' creativity and end platage was re...

So, I recently decided that Liz Lovely ’s Ginger Snapdragons cookies are the best thing that ever happened to cookies! In fact, Liz Lovely is the best thing that ever happened to cookies. Because I only have access to them when I got to MOM’s near my parents’ place, I decided to try to make my own version to lessen the craving til I can get out there. I think I did a pretty good job! And they’re extra gingery because that’s the only way to go! I made mine in different sizes to get the small flat crispy ones and the bigger chewy ones. And as always, use organic ingredients! Ingredients 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1 teaspoon baking soda
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 4 teaspoons ground ginger
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
 1/2 cup canola oil
 1/4 cup molasses
 1/4 cup soy milk
 3/4 cup cup sugar
 1 teaspoon vanillafreshly grated ginger (to taste) chopped pieces of crystallized ginger to put on top 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Ex...

Despite the fact that it's Easter long weekend, this week means papers, papers, papers for me to write so instead of posting a recipe I wanted to give you a quick baking tip that I have found more and more vegans have been adopting recently: using chickpea flour! Lately, I’ve been substituting about ¼ (or more, I've done up to half) of any flour in my cookie recipes with chickpea flour and it always ends up tasting amazing. It gives cookies a much richer, nuttier taster, and a warmer darker color. Because I tend to only use flours like whole wheat, spelt, etc. I find that you can substitute it one for one no problem. Since I’m straying furthe r and further away from really sweet desserts, I find that by providing a richer taste, chickpea flour makes baking less cloyingly sweet. I haven’t tried it on anything other than cookies at the moment though (like cakes, muffins, etc.) so if you have insight into that let me know! On the nutrition side, using chickpea flour is ...