Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Sauteed Swiss Chard
page 113

Sadly, there is no picture for this dish either. I must have hit the "delete all" button on my camera before downloading. Sorry folks. You all know what sauteed greens look like, I imagine. These looked better! Ha!
I previously used to steam my greens before sauteeing. Turns out that's entirely unnecessary! Don't I feel dumb. I've wasted good time on this extra step over the years, but I swear that's what they taught us to do in the one cooking class I took at "Natural Gourmet Institute." But that was ages ago. Who knows what really happened?!
Just wash and chop your greens. Sautee some garlic and shallots in olive oil. Add greens and toss till they wilt. Voila! Your delicious and healthful side dish is served!!

Speaking of healthful, but on a totally different note: Is there anything more disgusting than garlic juice? Don't answer that, because I already know! I'm feeling under the weather again and my friend and co-worker Thad made me the following juice:
Beet, pear, kale, ginger, garlic.
I got through the day feeling pretty good, so I'm willing to concede that maybe this was a good idea. At least my tastebuds are compromised from my cold! It's worse than swallowing salt water while swimming in the ocean and only slightly better than being sick all week! Yuk!!

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Watercress, Jicama, and Corn Salad with Jalapeno Dressing

Sadly, this is the only picture you get to see of the delicious salad we made last Friday. We were 5 women and V. for dinner. Everyone was starving and I rushed to get the food on the table, and before I could think "blog" it was all gone. I did take a picture of my girls with the empty salad bowl, but when I went to download it today, there was a problem with the memory card and nothing remains. Oh well, you can take my word for it...it looked so colorful and tasted deeeelicious.
I substituted chopped apples for the corn, because I hate frozen corn unless it's in a curry or a soup.
Look at the vibrant color of the jalapeno dressing! It's great on steamed veggies too!
The recipe says it serves 6, but everyone wanted seconds, so we didn't have enough. Better than when people aren't touching the food, I suppose. We filled up on lasagna afterwards. And the other 5 had chocolate cupcakes.
I've decided to swear off sugar for January, because the candy consumption over the holidays was out of control. It's a hard thing for a pastry chef. But I'm determined to prove to myself that I can do it, and I'm still eating fruit in moderation, so it's not like I'm really depriving myself. It's amazing though, how much of my usual diet contains some form of sugar, maple syrup or agave, and breakfast has been the hardest thing to keep interesting. I bought some raw cacao and I'm mostly making shakes with banana, water and almond butter. If anyone has any other inspirations, please leave a comment!!
The salad is on page 43.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Spaghetti and Seitan Wheatballs with
Roasted Plum Tomato Sauce

Erica came down to New York City from Ottawa with her family this past week. They got caught in a snow storm on the way down, turning what should have been an 8-hour drive, into a tedious 11-hour voyage.
I had prepped the wheat balls and tomato sauce in the morning, so it was easy enough to delay the cooking process until their arrival. Funnily enough, none of the kids wanted to taste the wheat balls, because as Kea explained: "we've never eaten food shaped into a ball before." But the tomato sauce was well-received!
Among the adults, the reviews of the balls were mixed. The general complaint was that the texture was too soft. Perhaps I minced the seitan in the food processor for too long. I would definitely try to keep it a little chunkier in the future. The leeks and garlic made for good flavor, coupled with the relative simplicity of the sauce.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Seitan Piccata and Braised Green Beans

Seitan Piccata is V's favorite dish at Candle 79. He never gets anything else. So when we had my parents and some friends over for dinner the other night he requested that it be the next thing I cook from the cookbook. I would have waited a few more months to make it, because frying things sort of scares me. And frying things in small batches and keeping them warm for 7 people, and then plating them before they get cold, scares me even more. It helped that my mother offered to help (while being so amazed by the seitan, which she had never seen before).

We did not make the seitan... I love Ray's Wheat Meat, which seems to be available at several health food stores around New York City, so it never seems worth the effort of starting from scratch. Someday though! Before this project is done!

I started by making the green beens - almonds add some texture and just a hint of flavor. Then I put them on a sheet pan in the oven, covered with foil, at 170 degrees (as low as my oven will go) to keep them warm, while we cooked the rest.

We made garlic mashed potatoes (boiled, then pureed in the food processor with soy milk, a little olive oil, salt and pepper).

My mom made the sauce. I breaded and fried the seitan. V. took pictures after we plated. Hooray for team work in the kitchen!  

I was the only vegetarian at the table and everyone completely cleaned their plates. It's a filling and fulfilling dish. Perfect for a cold winter evening with friends, family, and lots of red wine!

Recipes are on pages 89 and 111. 

I know. This not actually sharing the recipes is a little frustrating. But I can't copy the entire book for you. And so far 8 out of 8 recipes have been winners. That's a pretty great record if you're still looking for a good Christmas present! 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this recipe is completely different from the piccata in the Candle Cafe Cookbook. I like this one a lot better.

Quinoa Chili

It was pure luck that I came across the cookbook called Feeding the Whole Family when my first child was born over a decade ago. It was the first time I'd come across such exotic grains as millet, quinoa and amaranth, and included step by step directions on how to cook them. I may have called it 'keen-wa' for the first few years, but I definitely developed a love affair with this grain from the moment I tried it! And this chili is a family favourite - all of the kids will devour it, it's easy to spice up with hot sauce after the fact, and such a nourishing meal to bring to new moms or sick families:-) And now that the cold weather has arrived, I find we're enjoying it about once a week - with garlic bread, tea biscuits, tortilla chips or on a bed of steamed kale, we love our chili!

Page 145.






Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

No, I won't torture you by not giving you the actual recipe - that would just be CRUEL!!!!

Red Bean and Quinoa Chili

1 cup dried kidney beans, soaked
1 tsp cumin
3 cups water

Drain soaking water off beans. Place beans in a large pot with cumin and water; bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat, covered, until tender (50-60 minutes) or pressure-cook using 2 cups of water (45 minutes) OR.....for those who don't have a lot of time (me me me), buy one can of organic kidney beans.

2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tsp sea salt
1 large green pepper, chopped (I often use red or orange, and add carrots or cauliflower here)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed in warm water and drained
1 cup fresh or frozen corn (Ry is allergic, so I use peas instead)
1-2 cups organic tomato sauce
1 cup water

Heat oil in skillet on medium heat. Add onion, salt, garlic, pepper, and spices; saute for 5-10 minutes. Add rinsed quinoa and stir in. Add corn, tomato sauce, and water to onion/quinoa mixture. Simmer together 20 minutes. Add cooked beans to other ingredients; simmer another 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cookies

These are soft and very lemony. Very easy to eat! I think they make a nice balance to all the spice and fruit and chocolate cookies that we love to eat during the holidays. We served them at our Christmas party last weekend and they were the first to go...before the chocolate chip and the palmiers and the German cinnamon-almond cookies.
They would be good any time of year of course. I could see a summer picnic in Central Park, a little champagne smuggled to the great lawn in a thermos, a few lemon cookies...perfect lazy Sunday!
This is another adaptation of a German recipe, so the measurements are metric. The electronic kitchen scale that you absolutely need from Santa will take care of this!

Lemon Olive Oil Cookies
3 lemons
100g sugar
150g all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
a pinch of salt
75ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tblsp. soy milk (or other non-dairy milk of your choice)
sugar for rolling


Wash and dry the lemons. Grate the zest of all 3. Juice one of the lemons and set the juice aside.


Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.


In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and lemon zest with 75g of the sugar. Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, blend in the olive oil, lemon juice and soy milk. Don't overmix. 


Pour the rest of the sugar into a bowl. Roll little balls with the dough and then roll each ball in the sugar.


Line a baking sheet with parchment. Space out the cookies so they have room to expand in the oven (about 1 1/2" between them).


Gently use your thumb to press down the center of each cookie.

Bake about 12 minutes, or until the bottoms start to brown. Remove from baking sheet and spread out on a cooling rack.




Glaze
50g powdered sugar
1 tblsp. lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon


Mix the lemon juice into the powdered sugar with a spoon. You want the glaze to be smooth but not too runny. Put a little dollop of glaze into the center of each cookie. If you want to be fancy, use a knife to coax the glaze down the sides of the cookie (see picture). Sprinkle a little lemon zest on the glaze. Let it set (this may take a couple of hours). 
Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Avocado Salsa

Why is it so hard to find perfectly ripe avocados? I went to four stores, and I did finally find some, but it doesn't always work out that way. Here's a trick that one of my chef friends taught me: take the hard avocados and put them in the food processor with a little olive oil. Works like a charm. And you're only adding healthy fat to something that is already healthy fat, so if you have a party and you're in a bind, I highly recommend it. You're avocados won't be chunky but they'll taste perfectly ripe.
In this case it wasn't necessary and I got a nice, chunky avocado salsa. Which is to say guacamole. Whatever you want to call it, it was a big hit at our holiday party and I should have made more!
Recipe on page 11.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Winter Spiced Sangria

Depending on whether your apartment is hot or cold in the winter, you will want to make this recipe as sangria or mulled wine.
I recently heard somewhere that old buildings in New York tended to be overheated because it was assumed that you needed fresh air, and would therefore keep your windows open all winter. It's certainly the best explanation we've heard about why our apartment (built in 1927) is so hot, even though we've turned the radiators all the way down. And we do keep the windows wide open. Lots of fresh air and quite a waste of energy!
So when we had a party this weekend, 15 people in the already hot room, we opted for the chilled sangria. It was delicious. Not too sweet with plenty of holiday flavor!
Recipe on page 166.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Sofrito-Seared Seitan

Oh. Wow!! I really can't believe that this dish came out of my kitchen. It was so unbelievably good! And not too labor intensive for a weeknight! While the rice was cooking, I got everything else done. What a light and flavorful sofrito!!
I have to be honest, I deviated a little from the recipe. I didn't marinate the seitan (got home too late). Instead I seared it in olive oil for a few minutes to brown the outsides. Then I poured the sauce over it and simmered for 15-20 minutes. Totally delicious.
Also, I got the book out and realized I forgot to buy cilantro, and the recipe calls for 3 (!) tablespoons. So I added a teaspoon of ground cumin and chopped up about a tablespoon of fresh chives, just because I had them sitting around. Perhaps not totally authentic (at all!?!), but I don't think it suffered.
And maybe you could make this version for that person in your life who hates cilantro (doesn't everybody know at least one?).
We ate it with brown basmati rice and avocado as suggested, and I made a green side salad, just to get a few more veggies in there.
The recipe is on page 87.

Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Home-Style Pancakes

At 7.45 am the food co-op was already so packed with Thanksgiving shoppers that it took me 25 minutes to get through the check-out line. I thought I was being smart by getting there early. Me and all of the rest of Park Slope.
On the upside, I worked up an appetite and came home to make pancakes. My first vegan pancakes. They didn't have as much spring to them as non-vegan, and I actually liked them better. My German mother only ever made crepes when I was growing up, and these seem like the perfect middle ground between those, and the fluffy American pancakes that V. grew up with. Completely delicious!! (Recipe is on page 134).
Neither one of us was crazy about the idea of mixing blueberries into soy butter, as called for in the recipe. Instead, I cooked 1 bag of frozen blueberries with 1 cup of maple syrup and we poured that on top (well, not all of it). Yum! And we can eat the left-over sauce over ice-cream!
Also, feline supervision helps, if you can get it.

Spiced Apple-Plum Jam

This weekend we still had apples left from apple picking. They really needed to be used or thrown out, so I made jam. It was my first time, and I almost talked myself out of it because it seemed intimidating to sterilize jars, and I have heard so many stories of my mom's friends trying to make jam and having it turn out way too runny. As with everything kitchen related though, you just have to do a little research and follow instructions, and it turns out to be perfectly simple. We also had some prunes left from making plum cake, so I combined the two fruits and added some spices. It's great for afternoon tea with scones, especially when it's cold outside.

Spiced Apple-Plum Jam

Fresh prunes, cut in half and de-stoned

Apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces

How much fruit you use really depends on how much you want to peel and chop. I don't peel the plums, because it's a royal pain in the butt, and because I think the skins add a little texture to the finished product that's perfectly good. I used about 1/3 plums and 2/3 apples, which is a good ratio for a firmer consistency jam.

For every 2 lbs of fruit, I used:

2 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup of sugar or more (this depends on how sweet you like it, and you just have to taste it as it cooks)

I put everything in a big pot and let it cook down, on low heat, stirring occasionally. I had some pectin handy, but it turned out that I didn't need it. The jam came out the consistency of chunky apple sauce, so it was fine. If you like it a little firmer, you could add some pectin, following the instructions on the package.

While the jam cooks, wash the jars well and put them in the oven at 235 degrees for 20 minutes. Leave them in the oven, so that they are hot when you put in the jam (this will prevent the glass from cracking). Wipe any jam from the rims and then screw the lids on tightly. 

This is all I did. I let everything cool and then refrigerated the jam.

If you are making a huge amount and are worried about spoilage, you can submerge the filled jam jars in boiling water for 5 minutes. I only made 3 jars, which I knew were getting eaten soon, so I didn't bother.

Vegan Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Remember the dinner party for the friend who can't eat fat right now? This was the entree I made. Gnocchi are incredibly simple to prepare, but they do require that you pay attention to what you're doing. If you overwork them, they will get tough and chewy. 

I made these in the morning and then let them sit in the fridge (on a cutting board with parchment, not touching) for a few hours before cooking.

We served them with tomato sauce (because of the whole no-fat thing), but I think they would have been even better with some crispy sage, olive oil, garlic and salt.

Vegan Butternut Squash Ravioli

1 large butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cut into even-sized pieces

salt

fresh black pepper

about 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

about 1/3 cup cake flour

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the squash out on a sheet pan and bake until soft (25-45 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces).

Mix the two flours.

Puree the squash in the food processor (you might have to do it in 2 batches). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Flour your work surface and place the squash on it. Using a bench scraper, start to work the flour into the squash (this ensures that you don't over-mix). You might not need all of the flour. Your dough should be sticky, but workable.

Divide the dough into 6 portions. Roll each one into a rope, about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Using your thumb, roll each piece against the tines of a fork, to score it and sort of curl it. Lay out on parchment paper.

When ready to cook, boil some water with salt. Cook the gnocchi in batches. They will rise to the surface when they're done (2-3 minutes). Remove from the water with a slotted spoon. Plate and top with your favorite sauce.

Vegan Pumpkin Apple Crumb Muffins

We still have copious amounts of apples. So I made these muffins to bring to work. Used up maybe 4 apples. Will have to make more. 

The recipe is from the ppk, with my addition of apples and a crumb topping. 

They are moist. People ate 2 or 3 each. You could easily make several batches and have no leftovers.

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Pumpkin Apple Crumb Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tblsp. baking powder

a pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cloves

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned is fine, but don't use pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive....didn't affect the flavor)

2 tblsp. molasses

4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tblsp.vegan butter (Earth Balance)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, soy milk, oil, and molasses. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 

Put a tablespoon of batter into each muffin tin. Add a few pieces of apple on top of each. Cover with another tablespoon of batter. 

Using your hands, cream together the butter, sugar and flour. Form it into coarse crumbs and sprinkle on top of each muffin.

Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Pear Bourbon Rosemary Sorbet

We had a friend coming to dinner who, for medical reasons, can't have any fat at all for a few weeks. The entree portion of the meal took me a little while to figure out (and I'll tell you about it one of these days), but dessert was easy. For some reason I have been thinking about a pear bourbon cocktail, but we don't generally sit around sipping cocktails at home, so I thought I would turn the idea into a sorbet.
It tastes like biting into a very ripe, frozen pear. Very pear-y. With a little spike! It's definitely going to be a recurring fall dessert for us.


Pear Bourbon Rosemary Sorbet


10 ripe yellow bartlett pears
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup maple syrup
2 sprigs rosemary
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup bourbon (this is an estimate. you have to taste it as you go and decide how much you like in there)


Peel, core and cut the pears into pieces. Heat in a medium saucepan, with the rosemary, until they become soft. Remove the rosemary and discard. Stir in the maple syrup. Let it cool.
Puree everything in the food processor. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight.
Freeze in your ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. 
The alcohol prevents ice crystals from forming, so you get a smooth, almost creamy sorbet.

Beautiful Carrots!!

Hi all! It's been a really busy couple of weeks and I'm still catching up, so, for today, I just thought I'd share these totally psychedelic purple carrots with you!! Groovy, right?

Shades of Green Salad

This is the season when all good New Yorkers pick apples!

Like little red beacons, they beckon for us to leave our stone towers, the traffic noise, and the congestion behind and spend a day scrambling around an upstate farm, fantasizing about the pleasures of rural living. We buy apple cider, have lunch at a quaint little cafe named something like "Suzy's Kitchen," and maybe taste some too-sweet local wine. Then we pull out our iphones and obsess about the quickest route back to the city, where we admire our apples, google some recipes and go out to dinner somewhere fancy and "urban."

Then, over the next week or so, we bake some pie or cake, bring the neighbors some fresh picked apples and wonder about what else to do with our bottomless bag of shiny little fruits.

Which is my way of saying that there will be a few apple recipes coming your way in the next few days!

Today I made salad, where the apples were supporting characters, rather than the stars of the recipe. But they were essential nonetheless, adding sweetness and crunch. I always forget how much I love watercress, but the big bunches at the co-op this week reminded me. Use any lettuce, or combination of lettuces you like though.

Shades of Green Salad

romaine lettuce, washed, dried and chopped

watercress, trimmed and washed

avocado (i use 1/2 per person if it's a meal salad, less if it's an appetizer)

apple

sliced almonds, toasted

Sherry Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

2 tblsp. dry sherry

3 tblsp. maple syrup

1/2 clove garlic, chopped

salt

pepper

Whisk together the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Pour into a sealed container and leave in the fridge overnight. Remove the garlic the next day.

Toss the lettuces with the apples with as much dressing as desired. Garnish with avocado and almonds and serve immediately.

Chickpea Masala

I had one of those days where I just couldn't figure out what I wanted for dinner. Not in the mood for more soy products or seitan. Had pasta the night before. Didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen. So I clicked my way over to the Post Punk Kitchen to browse, and there was the solution to my conundrum: chickpeas! And I had every single ingredient for chickpea masala in the house, which is unheard of!
V. was at his sword fighting class building up an appetite, and a friend said she might stop by, so a big pot of stew seemed like the thing, with a generous side of basmati rice with toasted pistachios and raisins.
Well, V. got home and said he had a huge craving for soy chicken nuggets from the place down the block, so he ordered those, and my friend never showed up. Had I known, I probably never would have cooked, but I'm so very glad that I did, because I had a healthy dinner, and now I have a hearty breakfast for the rest of the week. Today I steamed some kale on the side. Tomorrow I'm planning to put a farm-fresh poached egg on top!



Chickpea Masala

Spice mix: 
1 tblsp. ground cumin
1 tblsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground tumeric
1/4 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. cayenne


3 tblsp. coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 large, chopped onion
1-2 jalapenos, seeds removed and finely chopped (i used 2 and it was super spicy)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tblsp. grated fresh ginger*
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 lbs tomatoes, diced
salt
pepper
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or if soaking your own, start with 2 cups)
1 tsp agave
1 tsp. tamarind paste


In a small bowl, mix all the spices.
In a large, deep skillet, heat the coconut oil with the onions. Cook until they start to brown. 
Add jalapenos, garlic and ginger. Mix in the cilantro and wait for it to wilt. Fold in the spice blend.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and agave, as well as salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for at 20-30 minutes, or until the whole thing thickens a bit.
Stir in the tamarind paste.


* I discovered that if with my grater I don't have to even peel the ginger...the peel stays on top and the grated ginger on the bottom. I tried this with my mother's grater when I was at home and it didn't work at all. Evidently not all graters are created equal, but it's worth trying yours if you want to save a step!

Shiitake I can't believe it's not Bacon!

Sometimes a vegetarian gets a craving for bacon. So she goes to the store (or the alternative New York diner that caters to vegetarians .... Curly's on 14th St., or Dizzy's in Park Slope come to mind) and gets some tempeh bacon, or some other kind of soy product that's supposed to simulate pork. And no matter how long you fry it, it ends up just being this limp strip of salty soy, that may taste ok, but doesn't satisfy any kind fo craving.
A few weeks ago, my friend took me to Sun in Bloom, which is a fantastic vegan cafe here in Park Slope, where I wish I could eat three meals a day! It's that good! And I ordered an avocado sandwich, and it came with shiitake bacon. Now, I've worked in a vegan restaurant for 5 years and I do a lot of recipe searching, but this delicious morsel completely slipped by me.
Well, I googled the recipe. It was developed by chef Elliot Prag at the Natural Gourmet cooking school, and it turns out to be the easiest thing to make. So I ran to the co-op, bought a huge bag of shiitake mushrooms and made bacon!! I swear it comes closer to the real thing than you can possibly imagine! It's crispy, it's fatty, it's salty! The perfect food!
A huge bag ends up making not very much. V. and I planned on saving some for sandwiches and salad, but then we picked a little off the sheet pan to taste. And then it was all gone. Oops!


Shiitake Bacon


shiitake mushroom caps (you can't buy too many)
olive oil
sea salt


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice, or chop the mushroom caps into pieces (not too tiny, because they shrink a lot). In a bowl, toss with olive oil (the mushrooms soak up the oil, so give it a good drizzle, without drenching them). Spread out evenly on a sheet pan. Sprinkle generously with sea salt.
Bake for about 1 hour, tossing with a spatula, every 15 minutes or so.
When the mushrooms are crispy, remove from the oven and cool. 
They will keep in an airtight container for a few days, if you have that kind of self-control.

Oven-roasted Broccoli

S'nice cafe in Park Slope had the most beautiful looking roasted broccoli the other day. I was inspired to make some. So easy. And infinitely better than plain old simple steamed broccoli (though I admit I like that too)!
The ultimate test will be when my parents visit and I try to feed this to my dad. Until then, it's unclear whether I'm just a vegetarian nut or whether broccoli can in fact be for everyone. I'll keep you posted....


Oven Roasted Broccoli


1 head of broccoli
4-5 tblsp. extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced


Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the broccoli into relatively large pieces. In a bowl, use your hands to toss with the olive oil. Spread out on a sheet pan.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and with the sliced garlic.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Optional: Grate some fresh parmesan on top or sprinkle with nutritional yeast.


P.S. : If you have a super-thoughtful friend who brought you Himalayan rock salt with its own grater as a house-warming gift, then your broccoli will taste extra good and full of love!!

Favorite breakfast

Talk about eating the rainbow!
This has been my breakfast all summer, and I'm going to miss it a lot when the variety of fruits is no longer available (any day now).
Banana, peach, kiwi, raspberries, papaya, orange, grapefruit and raisins. With a tiny splash of dark rum. Just for flavor!
That's at least 7 or 8 servings of fruit, which is a lot for breakfast, and a lot of sugar. But it's better than a jelly doughnut breakfast! And I do try to share with V., but he picks out the raspberries and leaves me the rest.