Nectarine Sorbet

This is my second time making nectarine sorbet, and it has turned out deliciously both times.  I adapted a recipe I saw in The Ultimate Book of  Vegan Cooking for Iced Clementines (which look really good) for the proportions, and then changed the rest around.

Take 6 nectarines and puree them in a food processor.  Strain the result through a fine sieve.  I had to do one at a time because my food processor is small, but just strain each one and mix it together.  Once you have strained all of them, you can process and strain the remaining larger chunks again to maximize how much sorbet you'll get.  Throw out the rest.  (Or, if you're Steve, mix it with sugar and the pulp of the limes/lemons you'll have to juice and spread it on toast).

Put 1/2 cup sugar and 4 TBPS water in a large sauce pan on a low heat.  Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.  Boil for 3 minutes without stirring, then turn off the heat.

While this is cooling a little, squeeze one lime and one lemon.  Add the resulting juice to the sugar mixture and stir.

Add in the nectarine puree and mix everything together thoroughly.  Pour it into a large container, preferably with a lid so that it doesn't get freezer burn.  Freeze for at least 4 hours, stirring the mixture vigorously every hour or two.  After it freezes completely, enjoy.  You'll have delicious sorbet.  Now I want to experiment with other fruits, and possibly make the Iced Clementines.  That would be really cute for a party.

The Ultimate Book of Vegan Cooking

Vegan Lunchbox Cupcake Photos

I've made quite a few cupcake batches in the past month, and they've all been super delicious.  I got the two recipes from a great vegan cookbook, Vegan Lunch Box.  It's a vegan mom who's published recipes and photos of what she packs her son for lunch everyday (he's in grade school).  It's a lot of very creative stuff.  Since I would feel bad simply reproducing the recipes here straight from the book without changing any aspect of them, I'll just put up pictures of them.

These are the triple chocolate ones, they tasted best with the Vanilla frosting.

These are the vanilla ones, they tasted best with the chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

In the last two weeks, between muffins and cupcakes, I think I've made at least six dozen cupcakes/muffins.  I've already posted my vanilla frosting recipe, but I've found the most amazing chocolate frosting to go with it.  Its a recipe from one of my cookbooks, with adaptations.  If you want some really interesting recipe ideas I highly recommend the book, Vegan Lunch Box.  I paired this with her white cupcakes in my latest cooking demonstration at work, and everyone loved it.  I got a lot of comments about how "you can't even tell its vegan".  The frosting is really what makes it though.  Here's my adaptation:

4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup earth balance butter or another Vegan butter
5 tbsp soy milk
2 tsp vanilla

Basically mix all of the above in a large bowl, either by hand or with an electric mixer.  It should come out the consistency of that kind of frosting you get in the tubs in the grocery store, thick and creamy.  If its too thin, add a little more powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a 1:4 ratio, stirring.  If its too thick, add soymilk 1/2 tbsp at a time, stirring. It should give a little resistance when stirring.

Another tip is if the butter is not fully melted and is not mixing well, you might be able to leave it on top of the stove (depending on your type of oven), and the heat from the oven will help melt it.

Anyway, it ends up absolutely delicious.  I've noticed that this goes best with the vanilla cupcakes, and the vanilla frosting goes best with the chocolate cupcakes.

Aunt Pat's awesome vegan, all fruit, gluten free pie

My dad's side of the family are all pretty into health, so they were most supportive when I went vegan and tried to make sure that what they cooked was ok for me to eat. My aunt Pat even went vegetarian herself, after looking into the topic. She also has celiac's, so she can't have most typical deserts unless she makes them herself or buys something special. So when I went out to visit and celebrate my college graduation, she made these delicious pies that everybody (even my extremely health conscious dad) could eat.

Crust:
In a food processor, mix about 2 cups raw pecans and about 6 pitted dates together. Then

press the "dough" into a pie pan.
(Or if in a rush, (and if you don't care that its not gluten free) you can use a keebler graham cracker crust, which is vegan)

Filling:

For the filling, mix in a blender 1-2 bananas and a bunch of strawberries. Try not to get it too runny. If the bananas are too green, it won't have as good of flavor.

Putting it all together:

Cover the bottom of the "pie crust" with sliced bananas.

Then decorate on top of the filling with sliced fruit: sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, sliced kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, and

raspberries. (those are the fruits I use...you could experiment with others if you like).

Chill and serve.

The filling might turn out a little runny (usually for me it looks a little like yogurt), but really its still delicious.

My little cousin wanted to eat while he was watching tv in the bedroom. He grabbed his plate and everyone was like "nooo..." He tripped and it landed face down on my aunts white carpet. It was kind of funny, in a tv sitcom kind of way.