For Lana

I have a great colleague (actually, MANY great colleagues!) at my not-so-new job that's made my transition into this new role a bit easier with her welcome smile, taking the time to answer my often simple questions and her amazingly optimistic view on well...everything!  To boot, she's really motivated me by her stories of adventure with her kids and the chia seed trail she leaves around the office!  It's great to have someone around the water cooler with a similar quirky view on life and a shared excitement over slipping flaxseed into cookie recipes!

So...this one is for Lana!  Thanks for the encouragement and your great spirit!  I love having someone that inspires me, just down the hallway!

I found a vegan and quite healthy cookie recipe online that I've tweaked to make my own - excellent as a breakfast bar or just a quick pick-me-up!  The ingredients might surprise you, but don't turn the page!  I encourage you to give them a try!  With three very different tastes in this household and three thumbs up, it's worth the effort.  And who'd think you could replace eggs with flax seeds and water, hey Lana? :-)

Healthy Oatmeal and Chocolate Treats

Ingredients

2 tsp. ground flaxseed
2 Tbsp. water
1 cup quick oats
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup good quality chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup OR agave syrup
1 banana, mashed
1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Directions

Set the over to 350.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the flaxseeds and water and set aside until thickened, about ten minutes.

Mix the oats, flour, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.  Add the chocolate.

Add the remaining wet ingredients, including the flaxseed/water in another bowl, mix well.  Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir until combined, but DO NOT overmix.

On a prepared baking sheet, drop heaping Tablespoons of the mixture on the sheet and flatten the cookies slightly with the back of a fork.  Bake for 8-12 minutes, until the cookies start to brown on the bottom.

Remove from the oven, let cool and store in a container for up to 2 days.  I like to freeze these and just take them out of the freezer as needed!

Stella for 2012

It's been awhile since I've blogged or even dove into my Stella and Dot business.  The styles are fabulous, on trend and affordable, but life just became way too hectic this past six months.  Now that I'm a bit more comfortable with my new job and Hubby is settling into retirement (not to mention you can feel Spring about to sprout!), I'm starting to get excited about this line again!

April will be the launch of the summer capsule and with that, I'll officially launch back into business.  Until then, I'd like to give you a sample of what was released for the big Spring 2012 line.  Inspirations are in four distinct categories: Amalfi, Savanna, Urban Splendor and Handcrafted and Forged.  Take a look...

Amalfi: the beautiful Italian Riviera, with sea hues and shades of the Mediterranean and a nod to mid century Italian style

Savanna:  Both fashion forward and fearless in attitude, it's very Southern, if you know what I mean!

Urban Splendor:  Eclectic, cosmopolitan, everyday pieces with a touch of global artistry.

Handcrafted and Forged:  Probably needs no explanation...

Of course, let's not forget Stella's more recent venture into the handbag line.  Thanks to some brilliant designers, these pieces are starting to take off

Whatever your style, love it, embrace it!  Hope to see you on the Stella site soon, and for those locals, Trunk Shows are coming back to a living room near you!

Salsa!

There are many things I love about Mexico and Mexican culture.  The colonial history, fantastic beaches, great people and culture and of course...the food!  One thing I really admire about Mexican cooking is their total independence from the spice rack, with the exception, of course, of salt.  The flavor, intensity and complexity of their food is summoned by vegetables and cooking preparations.  Think charred poblano chiles or a combination of onions, garlic, tomatoes and jalapenos.  Really, what else do you need?  Fresh food and fire.  It's simple and complex all at the same time.

On one of our last trips to Mexico, my brother-in-law and I went to a cooking class hosted by a lovely and quirky American who has lived in Mexico for over 35 years, and has obviously completely embraced the culture, the people and the food.  She was a great source of information and historic background to many different areas of Mexico and how their food evolved.  So really, a cooking, cultural and historic lesson rolled up into a four hour information and eating session - what's not to like?

While we prepared and consumed many "comfort foods" from different regions of Mexico, the most insightful exposure during this lesson was about the simple salsa.  I have many recipes for multiple types of salsa, but her ease in taking the typical red salsa and transforming it into several other specific salsas by the simple add on of an extra ingredient or preparation, well... made it all make sense.

So, I think it's safe to say that the majority of the population in Canada is well versed with Pico de gallo salsa.  You know it as a great combination of chopped raw vegetables with a dose of cilantro.  Fresh with flavor, but quite mild.  This raw salsa keeps in the fridge for about 2 days at best.  In other words, prepare and consume.  If you are the Mexican all-inclusive traveller, THIS is what is served as salsa.  But there is so much more.  Salsa means simply, "sauce" in Mexico and with that, typically the consistency resembles a textured sauce. 

The most basic and well known is probably Salsa Roja de Molcajete.  (Red sauce in a Molcajete) The molcajete is an ancient Mexican kitchen tool reminiscent of a mortar, though carved out of lava rock, which when the salsa is crushed and prepared in this bowl, picks up the flavours of the specific rock.
This salsa is fantastic with almost anything and is the typical "grilled" salsa. Grilled, because they simply add the ingredients directly to the fire of a gas oven or on a round pan, called comal, until the vegetables are charred.

From there, you can take this salsa and simply fry it - add it to a pan with a bit of oil and cook it.  This deepens the flavour as well as the color and presto, chango, you now have Salsa Ranchero.  This is a common salsa served with the popular huevos ranchero (ranch styled egg breakfast).  Then, why not add some dried chili to this concoction and you have Diabla Sauce.  Also great on many things, including grilled fish.  The final step we learned was adding some tequila to the Diabla sauce to make it a "drunken salsa"!

So I'd like to share with you the recipe I learned from Donna for her Salsa Roja de Molcajete.  Thanks Donna - I'll be back!

Salsa Roja de Molcajete

4 Roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 small white onion
2 serrano chiles
1 T. chopped cilantro
Sea salt to taste

Roast tomatoes, onion and chiles on a hot comal or heavy skillet, adding garlic last.  Be careful not to blacken the garlic as it will become bitter!

Crush tomatoes and place in a molcajete or a blender.  Rough chop the onions and add to tomatoes, with the garlic and chiles.  Either blend in the blender until it becomes a sauce with texture OR grind in the molcajete until it becomes a rustic paste.  Add sea salt and taste.  Stir in the cilantro last.

Best little vegan delight on our menu...

I recognize that sometimes I'm a bit slow.  OK, really slow but sometimes, that's a good thing!  With my love and need to covet cookbooks, I'd have to stop my day job to keep up with kitchen production,  so that means I often get to re-explore the same cookbook on multiple occasions.  Point taken last month when I re-opened GP's My Father's Daughter cookbook and finally found some barley flour at our local organic store - it was the perfect storm and time to try another "healthy" and vegan version of a classic cookie.  The results are exceptionally favorable, to say the least!

Let's face it, my commitment to eating healthy, losing weight or abiding by my food allergies typically fly out the window the minute anything with sugar comes within arms length.  One has been known to skip the line at the local bakery when only one lemon curd tart remains on the display counter.  But that's ONE, no one, specifically....

Anyway, Lalo's Famous Cookies, or Blythe Danner's version of a thumb print/jam cookie is currently being inhaled at our household.  And I'm not sure what the best thing is: the notion that I feel great after eating them with no side effects from food allergens, the knowledge that they are fairly healthy for me or the fact that they freeze great, so I can pop a bunch of these in the freezer to enjoy everyday!

To all my vegan friends: it's time to celebrate!  Take out your mixing bowl, dust off those cookie sheets and get the hell into the kitchen.  With little ingredients and under an hour, you'll be noshing on these delights!  My husband was on his third one before I broke the bad news to him - these are vegan, luvvy.

He's still eating them....

Ingredients
4 cups barley flour
3 cups raw whole almonds crushed in a food processor (about ten 2-second pulses)
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
1 cup real Vermont maple syrup
Your favorite jam (blueberry, raspberry, and apricot are all very nice)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine all the ingredients except for the jam together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Form into tablespoonful balls and space them evenly on cookie sheets. Using your index finger, make an indent in each cookie. Fill each indent with a small spoonful of jam. Bake until the cookies are evenly browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool before eating.

Eat and be merry,