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- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup all-vegetable shortening (Spectrum)
- 3/4 cup warm milk
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 Tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch powder
- 20 medium pitted black olives
- 1/2 cup seedless black raisin, soaked for 5 minutes and drained
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, diced
- In a food processor, put the flour, salt, and baking powder and with a fitted steel blade pulse for 5 seconds.
- Add the shortening and butter and process until the mixture looks like coarse meal, about 15 seconds.
- While the machine is running, pour the milk through the feed tube in a steady stream and process until the dough almost comes together into a ball.
- Remove from bowl and knewad a few times and let rest for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare pino filling.
- Roll dough into a long log and cut dough into 10-12 pieces.
- Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan and saute' onions for 5-7 minutes until transparent.
- Add beef and garlic and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Add seasonings and cook for 3 more minutes.
- Add vegetable broth and simmer until liquid almost evaporates (5 minutes).
- Add arrowroot powder to beef mixture and cook until mixture thickens.
- Take one piece of dough and roll into a 6-inch circle.
- Add 1-1 1/2 Tablespoons of beef filling.
- Add a few raisins and one black olive and a piece of hard-boiled egg.
- Take one side of the dough and bring to the front side of dough to enclose the filling sealing the ends and folding the excess dough and sealing upwards.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Use 1 egg and beat well.
- Brush some egg wash over the empanadas.
- Brush over empanadas.
- Bake for 20 minutes and remove from oven and turn each empanada over and baking on the opposite side for 5 minutes.
- This is will brown the tops a little.
Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies {Gluten-free}
December 10th, 2010
It is officially cold and snowy and wintery.
Did I say I was excited for winter and snow?
I think I did. And I regret it.
Everytime I step outside, even if I am all bundled up, I still feel the cold wind.
I do not exactly dislike Michigan it is that I thought I was mentally prepared for it. Ha!
I looked at the weather in Texas and realized it is a balmy 75 degrees. Such a change from the 19 degrees here. Yes, I heard you shiver!
Before we packed up for our concert week, I decided to make a new cookie recipe. I had mentioned to some that I had been wanting chocolate peppermint in a cookie form. I wanted them gluten-free too.
I took a chance and started with a base recipe and added ingredients from there.
The end result was a even mix of flavors with a few crunches of candy cane followed by delicious bites of dark chocolate morsels. YUM!
I am definitely liking gluten-free baking. It creates a nice soft cookie and perfect with each bite. This would go great with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee. Enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies {Gluten-free}
print recipe
makes 2 dozen
¾ to 1 cup agave nectar
½ cup Earth Balance margarine, at room temperature
2 flax seed “eggs” ( 2 Tbsp flax seed meal + 6 Tbsp warm water)
1 ½ teaspoons peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 candy canes, semi-grounded in coffee grinder
1 cup dark chocolate chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix the flax seed meal and warm water and set aside for 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl add softened Earth Balance and agave nectar and mix well by hand. Add the extracts and the flax seed egg and blend well.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix flour into wet ingredients and blend well until all ingredients have come together.
Add semi-ground candy canes and chocolate chips and mix well.
Add 2 Tbsp of batter onto baking sheet 2 inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes before devouring.
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Persimmon Ginger Smoothie
December 8th, 2010
I said I was not going to make smoothies because of the cold weather.
I lied.
These ripe Hachiya persimmons were calling out to me asking me to use them in another fun way.
Blend me! Puree me! Sqeeze me! —Yes, my fruit calls out to me. 🙂
I am very low on my persimmons and I have to use them before I leave on vacation. Well, I might freeze the freeze the rest for a special occasion.
Fun story. I have a friend who emails me and lets me know that she purchases two beautiful pieces of fruit but is quite unaware of its name and how it is used. She places them on her window sill and looks at them for a few days.
She decides to visit my blog after not having been by for several months, and what does she see? Recipes for persimmons and for her mystery fruit. She now knows how she can use them! I thought it was a wonderful story.
Don’y be afraid to buy a new fruit or vegetable at the store. Someone out there has created something with it already.
This morning, back to the fruit calling me, I combined my very ripe Hachiya persimmons and blended it with coconut milk to make this creamy thick smoothie.
I already have someone who has made it too! Try it soon, try it NOW, make it.
makes two servings or 1 large 12 ounce smoothie
print recipe
2 very ripe Hachiya persimmons, seeded and peel discarded
3/4 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup ice
2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 Tbsp agave nectar, or to taste
1 Tablespoon flax seed oil (optional)
1 scoop protein powder (optional)
2 cups fresh spinach (option) for a green smoothie
Slowly scoop out persimmon flesh from fruit into a bowl. Using your hands, remove the black seeds from the fruit if you see any. DOES NOT taste good, even with a high-powered blender.
Place fruit in blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Blend well and sip slowly. Very creamy and smooth.
Enjoy!
Please visit my Facebook Discussions Page and add your favorite vegan cookie recipe. I would like to try other people’s favorites.
If not on Facebook, please leave me a link with your fav recipe. Thanks!
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Empanadas al Horno (Chilean Turnovers or Meat Pies)
December 7th, 2010
I should be making soups.
It is a nippy 23-27 degrees cold here. Can you believe I am still getting up at 6am for my morning workouts? Yes, since it has started getting busy in the evenings I need my morning workouts most of all.
You know what I have not been able to do? Green Smoothies have fallen short in my kitchen. I have all the good intention of making them but then I think of something warm going down so I make a regular breakfast. Ryan enjoys oatmeal and I have my protein breakfast with tofu scrambles or omelettes, I just need to make sure to add sauteed veggies.
I notice that one of the hardest things to do during the winter is to eat well. Even though I have produce at home, baking and cooking my normal fare has not been as consistent. I look forward to January where the pace has calmed down a bit.
How are you doing eating healthy during the winter evenings?
Last night I spent making pumpkin sauce / butter from leftover pumpkins so that I could give them as Christmas gifts. Yes, how much more time do I have? Not much. I knew for a fact that baking cookies this year was going to be out of the question but I at least wanted to get something done.
It was wonderful smelling the blend of pumpkin with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, oranges, and more wafting through the house. I went to bed happy. In fact I think the smell lulled me to sleep. 🙂
One of my favorite meals I used to eat at my Chilean grandmother’s home were Empanadas, or otherwise known as savory meat pies. These were such a special meal served and was usually prepared during the holidays or for special occasions. This is similar to the Mexican tradition when dealing with tamales.
Empanadas are usually the ideal comfort food. It is a flaky buttery crust with a savory and delicious filling. It is ideal Latin comfort food.
The key to the flavors for this Chilean empanadas is the pino, which is a seasoned filling with added fillings like raisins, hard-boiled eggs and black olives. What an interesting combination but SO delicious!
Another important factor is the dough. The dough has to be flaky, becasue with each bite you have a perfectly baked crust with some seasoned beef and raisins and black olives. Obviously I was going to have to leave out the hard-boiled eggs, but I knew that the lack of the eggs would not alter the flavors of the empanadas.
Ryan thought the flake crust was perfect and the filling flavorful. The recipe is a keeper and it will be something I will pass onto our future kids.
What recipes were made often by your mother or grandmother but NEVER taught to you? Have you recreated it?
adapted from The South American Table
Ingredients
Instructions
Eat slightly warm and serve with Pebre or my grandma’s secret chimichurri sauce. Enjoy!!
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Persimmon Ginger Crumb Coffee Cake
December 6th, 2010
I am so sad to see this weekend fly away so fast! Luckily I finished more than half our Christmas cards and placed thm in the mail! When I started looking at our calandar I realized that I barely have much time before I head to Texas to visit my family.
The next 10 days are filled with recitals and concerts for the holiday season. This not only means being busy but it also means being away from home too! I took advantage of cooking so nice warm meals this weekend knowing that leftovers were probably going to be the best thing for our busy schedules.
What about workouts? Well, I went to Zumba on Saturday despite the fact that my favorite instructor was going to be gone. I am sorry but once I get used to an instructor it is hard to have others teach you especially if they are not better than your own instructor. It seems like everyone is wanting to become a Zumba instructor but that means instructors having previously taught aerobics or other technique THINK that this is what Zumba is about.
I need to vent folks. If someone does not know how to move their hips or what a specific dance is, DON”T pretend to KNOW it. You look silly. I was embarassed for the last instructor only because Zumba was being taught like it was NOT Zumba. So there. This is the end of my venting. Looks like I am going to have to get my dose of REAL Zumba while I am in Houston.
This past weekend I worked on a fantastic recipe. I recently partnered with Specialty Produce which is a company that supplies fresh produce. The lovely folks sent me some wonderful produce to try out and to create recipes. How fun is that? I received some great apples I have not tasted before and some kaffir limes. I immediately decided to use my persimmons because I have been on that kick.
Specialty Produce has added my Tropical Persimmon Muffins to their persimmon page of info and it is wonderful to see people coming to visit your site when a certain fruit is in-season. People left and right are trying to figure out what to do with these beauties. Before this year, I hardly knew what to do with them.
Tomorrow I will feature a Persimmon Smoothie, so stay tuned!
On Friday evening I set my heart on making a crumb coffeecake. I checked out different recipes online and made sure mine was unique especially since it had to be vegan.
I decided to combine candied ginger with Fuyu persimmons, so I chopped these items up and cooked them in some Earth Balance and added some lemon and orange juice along with some spices.
Now I know that normally one would use all-purpose flour for a crumb coffeecake but I wanted mine to be healthy so I used whole wheat / white flour. I was happy that I did because the flavors were perfect.
This Persimmon Ginger Crumb Coffeecake is very moist and wonderful. I gave most of it away to folks at the gym or to friends from church and the feedback was wonderful. They all agreed that while the cake was moist, that it was a very delicious and unique cake. Score!
Persimmon Ginger Crumb Coffee Cake
veganized and adapted from Emeril Lagasse’s recipe
print recipe
12-14 servings (using a 9×13 pan)
Buttermilk
1 1/2 cups So Delicious coconut milk
3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Butter / sugar mixture
1 cup coconut crystals, maple sugar, date sugar, or agave nectar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 stick (1/2 cup) Earth Balance, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 flax eggs (3 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 9 Tbsp warm water) (set aside for 5 minutes)
Dry ingredients
3 1/2 cups whole wheat / white flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
Wet ingredients
3 cups Fuyu persimmons (about 6) peeled and chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup candied ginger, minced and chopped
2 Tablespoons Earth Balance
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon dried orange peel
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
1/4 cup maple syrup
Crumble
1/2 cup whole wheat / white flour
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) Earth Balance, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup candied ginger, minced and chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 cup brown sugar (or coconut crystals or maple sugar)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch rectangle pan. 
In a medium-size saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter on medium heat. Add all the wet ingredients to the pan. Saute’ the mixture for 5 minutes, or until softened. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the 1 stick of Earth Balance, the coconut sugar, and maple syrup with an electric mixer. (from the butter / sugar mixture). Add the vanilla extract. Add the flax eggs and beat well.
Into a medium-size mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture, buttermilk, and vanilla to the butter mixture and beat with the electric mixer until everything is incorporated.
Crumble
In another medium-size mixing bowl, combine the crumble ingredients (except the minced ginger and walnuts) and using a pastry cutter process until it resemble wet sand. You can also use the food processor too. Add the minced ginger and walnuts and mix well)
Assembly
Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan. Spread the persimmon mixture over the batter. 
Drop heaping spoonfuls of the remaining batter over the persimmon mixture, about 1-inch apart. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the surface. Put the cake pan on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. 
Cut into slices and serve warm. Great at room temperature too!
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Sweet Potato & Porcini Mushroom Latkes with Chive Sauce
December 3rd, 2010
So excited for the weekend to be here because it means I can catch up on EVERYTHING! My list is piling up with To-Do items for my Saturday so here is to a stress-free weekend, right?
This week was stress-free, but that is because this week FLEW by! I probably focused on certain things too much or the fact it gets darker sooner is messing with me!
This week I worked on Latkes two nights in a row. I had never made them and ever since I receivedmy issue of Bon Appetit in the mail, I had been eyeing several recipes for these traditional potato pancakes.
Latkes are a traditional Jewish dish often served during Hanukkah but I had really never had them before. That even suprises me! These are really easy to make and is perfect with a large green salad.
Since I used a non-stick skillet, I really tried not using tons of oil. I used coconut oil and quickly cooked the latkes on each side with no issues. After pan-frying these, I placed them on a cookie sheet and in the oven to continue baking. Make sure not to leave them in too long or else they will dry up. Enjoy!
Sweet Potato & Porcini Mushroom Latkes
adapted from Bon Appetit
Print recipe
Latkes
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 cups chopped onions, divided
2 flax “egg” (2 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 6 Tbsp warm water)
1/4 cup potato flour (or any tyoe of flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Coconut oil (for frying) 
Chive sauce
1 cup Silk plain yogurt (or Tofutti sour cream)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon white pepper, ground
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Greens and Mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 small garlic cloves, pressed
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
8 ounces baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
3 cups (packed) baby greens
Latkes
Combine porcini and boiling water in bowl. Soak until soft, about 15 minutes. Strain, pressing out all liquid. Chop porcini.
Blend raw potatoes and 1/2 cup onions in processor until finely ground and some liquid forms. Add mixture to a bowl and using 2-3 paper towels, drain excess liquid from potatoes, letting thw liquid soak into the paper. Discard paper.
Add 1 1/2 cups onions and next 4 ingredients. Stir until batter becomes moist. Add porcini.
Pour enough oil into heavy large skillet to coat bottom; heat over medium-high heat. Working in batches, drop potato mixture into skillet by scant 1/4 cupfuls. Flatten into 2 1/2-inch rounds. Cook until golden, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to large baking sheet. do ahead Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm in 400°F oven until crisp, 4 to 5 minutes per side.
Salad and chive cream
Stir nondairy yogurt, chives, and 2 Tablespoons vinegar in small bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and all mushrooms; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until brown, 6 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons vinegar; toss. Season with salt, pepper, and more vinegar, if desired.
Overlap latkes on plates. Mound greens alongside; top with mushrooms. Serve with chive sauce.
