I love having raw quick things in the fridge for snacks. Want something sweet? It’s already there and made and honestly in this case, a healthier choice. I had a banana that wasn’t looking so good so I busted out Dreena’s Banana Ballz.
My impatience and food processor make blending dates a pain in the butt when there are only a few. Big batches of anything is fine, even in the small 3 cup section but 4 dates is rough. So I kind of gave up and there are a lot of chunks in this one. The recipe would be a lot better with the sweetness smoothed out but I’m fine with it. Except when I don’t know if I’m getting a bite of date or chocolate chip. Either way they are not too sweet and don’t fill me with guilt.
Posted in Baking, Food.
Tagged with banana, coconut, dates, raw.
By Shannon
– May 18, 2013
Today was a good day! It actually started off at CalMoto in Mountain View for the husband. He’s getting a new exhaust but unfortunately they didn’t have the indicators he wanted so he had to order them and will have to go back. He’s getting a bike upgrade today, and I’m finally getting my bike! But we had to drive to Livermore to pick it up. Oh well, it was a lovely day.
KTMs are orange. Seriously. It’s a good thing I’m not really afraid of orange, and honestly it’s growing on me. Plus, they pair it with black a lot. When you walk into the dealership you see a sea of orange up front. To the left is all the Triumphs and in another room are the BMWs. I was looking around for my bike, a brand new KTM Duke 690, and found her tucked in at the front window. She’s been getting a lot of attention. The dealership only got this 1 black and they will be getting a white one in June. The box on the handlebars is the Roadlok system. It’s pretty awesome. For this model I had to order directly from the dealership so they slipped it on for me. Not that it’s hard. It’s 2 bolts.
Oh, so cute! We trailered her home since I really need to tool around the neighbourhood a few miles before I take on a few major highways and a bridge. A very windy bridge. I also happen to have panic attacks on bikes, or my last one so I want to take it a bit slow. It’s all mental but I think this bike is really going to be fun and worth the mental break in period. It’s light, easy to maneuver and can keep up easily in traffic.
Posted in Hobbies, Motorcycle.
Tagged with duke, ktm, motorcycles.
By Shannon
– May 17, 2013
I can’t believe how hard it was for me to find rye flakes. Seriously. Even the Whole Foods bulk bins let me down. Their cereal section let me down. I was down and out and have been wanting to make these cookies for a while now. I needed more rye flour for bread so I just ordered it online and got some darn rye flakes while I was shopping.
The recipe was from Have Cake Will Travel and as usual was super easy. You can easily use oatmeal instead of rye flakes but I really wanted to see if I could tell the difference. And there was a pretty big difference. These got a bit more crisp, I feel like oatmeal loses a bit of bite when baked in cookies but the rye flakes did not have that same texture. It was pretty neat. I added both the dates and walnuts (and didn’t skimp on the sugar) and thought they were a nice treat.
Posted in Baking, Food.
Tagged with cookies, dates, rye flakes, walnuts.
By Shannon
– May 16, 2013
I know I don’t write about fashion or anything that cool. But if you know me, you know I have a Fluevog problem. Today was International Fluevog Day and it worked out that this year I could visit a store and take part of their rare sale. It was 15% off and I had a really damn hard time deciding what I wanted. I bought the boots first and then on the way back to the car I turned around and got the shoes. I couldn’t help it! And I got a free mug, so there’s that 
The loot! The boots are of the Living family: Malcolm. They are mens boots but they have been on my radar since they came out. I’ve been looking for a cool pair of slouchy boots for well over a year and they have lived on my amazon list just that long. They were a last minute decision purchase since they didn’t have the black colourway on the floor. They only had a couple of sizes left and they had my size. Destiny. Sold.
Funny enough the shoes I went back for got the vote from my friend AND my husband (in text). So of course I didn’t pick them up first. They are in the Adriana family: Lois. Super cute. I love spectators. These should get a lot of wear and they are comfy.
Posted in Shoes.
Tagged with fluevog, shoes.
By Shannon
– May 15, 2013
So, this months challenge for the Baking Partners was New York Style Pizza. We have a lot of great entries and I always like making pizza. Plus, the pizza dough recipe over at Feeling Foodish and the sauce recipe over at Serious Eats were already vegetarian. Just had to sub margarine for butter in the sauce so I’m not going to repost the recipes here. Couldn’t be easier, right?
Yeah, and then that happened. My pizza stone died. I heard a bang the other day when I was baking something else and I knew what was going on. Total bummer. Now I need to replace it but I really had to make the challenge pizza. So I went old school with my mom’s very old pizza pan and hoped for the best.
The dough was so easy. I actually weighed it all out and it was just very easy. I loved how thin and easy it was to work with. I had it 48 hours in the fridge and it was fine. I weighed the ingredients, it always works out so much better.
So the sauce was very basic but just what I wanted. I do admit I added a tiny bit of sugar, I just like a sweeter sauce. It was very tasty. I went very basic and topped it with a bit of Daiya wedge and some shiitake mushrooms that showed up in my CSA box. I didn’t add my usual spices on top because I wanted the sauce to shine a bit more than usual.
Honestly, this was a great pizza. I loved the crust. The sauce was okay I guess, but the crust was beautiful. It really reminded me of New York Pizza, but of course it was missing that “something”. Not sure if it needed a bit more salt or something else but the crust without sauce or toppings was just missing something. That’s all good though, because I’ll make it over and over since it is a great piece of pie.
Posted in Baking, Food.
Tagged with challenge, pizza.
By Shannon
– May 15, 2013
Yum! My husband has what you might call a Brazil nut problem. As in, he can never get enough of them. Notice how they don’t really sell them by themselves? Sure you can get your fair share of almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, cashews, even hazelnuts. Not so much with Brazil nuts. Total bummer. I found some at Trader Joe’s but they were raw. And my guy isn’t one to eat raw nuts.
What’s a girl to do but roast her nuts for her husband? And a few basic spices and it turns into an awesome snack.
Spicy Rosemary Brazil Nuts Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound raw brazil nuts
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Toss the brazil nuts with the oil and spices.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the nuts are lightly browned. Watch carefully, it might be less than 20 minutes for you.
2.2
http://www.killerbunniesinc.com/2013/05/spicy-rosemary-brazil-nuts-recipe/
Posted in Diet, Gluten Free, Recipes, Savory.
Tagged with nuts, recipe.
By Shannon
– May 14, 2013
So tired I couldn’t take a focused photo. Damn Mondays. I decided to jump into the Tea Of Inquiry today by The Republic Of Tea. I actually really liked this one.
This green tea has toasted rice and I really love the added flavour. This tea actually has a personality and that’s what I like about it. It has an earthy grassy sencha taste with the toasty flavour from the rice. It’s a pretty good Genmaicha in itself for mass production bags. It’s a good introduction into Gemaicha teas I think as it isn’t hard to brew and it tastes a little more mellow that something you might get with a higher level brand.
Posted in Food, Tea.
Tagged with green tea, republic of tea.
By Shannon
– May 13, 2013
Sorry about the overcast photoshoot. I was hungry and in the mood for lentils. Smitten Kitchen had a great recipe for a Lentil and Chickpea salad but it seemed…complicated.
Now let me say all the steps are probably worth it. I’m lazy at heart. Yes, I know it doesn’t seem like it but if I’m cooking when I’m hungry the end better be in sight. So I didn’t toast and grind my own spices. I used precooked lentils. I didn’t have a preserved lemon (I’m sure I had a wrinkled lemon on my tree but it just wasn’t the same), and I totally spaced on the parsley. I wouldn’t forget that next time.
It was still tasty, but not as epic as it could have been. It was great for lunches and it was a nice change with the tahini. I did get bored of it near the end mind you, since I ate the whole batch myself. I ate a lot of it on greens to give it a nice veggie kick. I did leave out the feta but I can see how that would be an amazing addition. If you like or can eat cheese, go for it!
Posted in Food, Meal Ideas.
Tagged with chickpeas, lentils, salad, tahini.
By Shannon
– May 12, 2013
I finally got to Gracias Madre! It’s been on the list for a while but weekends in the Mission are kind of a pain in the butt. My coworkers decided to take me there and it was a great lunch. I was the only veg there but hey, everyone was really flexible. I was pretty happy. Let me tell ya, the food was a lot quicker than Cafe Gratitude. Plus, the food was cooked. Thanks for not being total crazy hippies. At least on this visit.
The inside was really nice. There’s a bit of outside seating too. Of course we were sat at a big table in the middle of the restaurant where there was no light. So forgive the photos. I tried. I was also the only food blogger at the table so I tried not to be a pain in the ass. That’s hard for me. We got there early, really before the lunch rush so there were plenty of tables open. They started filling up pretty quickly.
We ordered a few appetizers. Guacamole (not pictured) had a bit of a kick and was served with warm tortillas. The gorditas were great, kind of greasy and with a kick from the salsa verde. I had some of this even though it had avocado. Honestly, I think everything in the restaurant had avocado. Seriously. The quesadillas had sweet potatoes and caramelized onions. As you can see they were fatties. Everyone enjoyed them but I passed since both avocado and sweet potato in the same dish is enough for me to pass on. Especially since I had an entrée coming up!
I got the torta special. It also came with avocado on the caesar AND in the sandwich. They were cool enough to leave it off. They said french bread but this was definitely an Italian Ciabatta. No worries. It was still damn tasty with beans, pico de gallo, cashew crema and some veggies. Very tasty but everything seemed to blend on the palette after awhile. I was looking forward to the chocolate cake but there was no way that was going to fit in my stomach. Next time!
Posted in Food, Reviews.
Tagged with sfbay food.
By Shannon
– May 11, 2013
It’s Friday and gloomy here. Aka, back to normal. I’ve probably said it before but Earl Grey is the husband’s domain. I can take it or leave it but sometimes it’s nice to change things up. We have a bunch of Republic of Tea cannisters in both loose and bagged at work. I picked up the Earl Greyer this time and gave it a go.
I’m never really suprised with RoT’s teabags. They are pretty good honestly. The bergamot isn’t overpowering in this blend which is different. I thought it was because I brewed it lightly but I’ve tried a few times and it is just quite subtle. I actually prefer this one iced since the bergamot is so subtle it isn’t really worth a huge parade on my tongue hot.
Posted in Food, Tea.
Tagged with black tea, republic of tea.
By Shannon
– May 10, 2013
