While my husband and I are still riding high on our dog, Huff’s, meteoric rise to fame as the co-star of a locally-produced commercial that garnered it’s director and our friend ONE MILLION CLAMS by virtue of being chosen by USA Today’s Ad Meter Poll as the No. 1 ad on the Superbowl, beloved vegan cookbook author, Bryanna Clark Grogan, writes this in her Superbowl post on her website:
Okay, I know Huff is the true celebrity and top dog in our household…
but I was still thrilled this week when Nava Atlas chose my Blooming Platter Cookbook as the “Featured Book“ for her VegKitchen e-newsletter (with a mere 12,000 subscribers–wow!). Follow the links to read the review and to subscribe to the VegKitchen “Recipe of the Week” newsletter, which includes much more than just a recipe.
Many thanks also to Bryanna Clark Grogan who allowed Nava to publish her lovely review of the book.
Nava and Bryanna each have new books out themselves and I am the proud owner of both Vegan Holiday Kitchen and World Vegan Feast. I have reviewed the latter, but stay tuned for a review of the former closer to Easter/Passover.
Yesterday morning, a TV crew from WVEC Channel 13 came to our house to interview “Team Huff”: all of the good folks, including our Great Dane, Huff, responsible for“Man’s Best Friend” becoming a Top Five Finalist in the “Doritos Crash the Superbowl” commercial competition! (Click on the link to watch the commercial, the blooper ad reel, see the Huff Pics of the Day and VOTE to put them in a Top Two slot which will mean the commercial will be aired on the Superbowl!)
I wanted to serve everyone a little something, though I knew no one would want food stuck in their teeth on camera. My pal and vegan cookbook author extraordinaire, Bryanna Clark Grogran, recommended sugar cookies in the shape of dog bones. Perfect!
Since my Blooming Platter Cookbook focuses on seasonal ingredients, there are no plain sugar cookies in it. However, I have a vegan sugar cookie recipe that is very good, but calls for vegan cream cheese. That’s not a problem except that I had little time and wanted something as streamlined as possible. An online search turned up a recipe from The Decorated Cookie blog. It was terrific and I recommend it highly! Just click on the link for the easy and tasty recipe. I wanted my cookies to suggest dog treats so I didn’t ice them, but the frosting recipe looks like a winner too.
Here’s a quick helpful tip: I was completely out of powdered sugar. I knew a substitution could be made from granulated sugar and cornstarch so I searched on line for the proportions. Finding two different ones, I split the difference, using 1 cup natural sugar to 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. I simply blended the mixture it in the blender to make a find powder. (The directions I read said that a food processor wouldn’t work, so I didn’t experiment.) The result was just right. Be sure to scrape down the sides and blend a few times or granulated sugar will remain at the bottom of the blender.
As it turned out, everyone was too busy to eat while the taping transpired, but our guests were happy to take doggy bags of cookies with them.
Thanks to FARM for not only publishing my vegan White Bean and Kale Stew recipe from The Blooming Platter Cookbook, but for also including nutritional information, Gimme Lean product information, and an article on the fast food-obesity connection. Just click HERE to access the newsletter, including recipe.
If you live in or near Washington, D.C.–or are lucky enough to visit our nation’s capital and one of my favorite cities (it never seems the same twice!)–put Restaurant Nora on your dining to-do list.
For the last two years, we’ve traveled to D.C. with different couples to ring in the New Year. This year we went with our good pals, Jonell and Scott Walthall, staying at theW Hotel again this year. It is hip and stylish and ideally located between the Washington Mall (NOT a shopping mall!) and the White House.
In trying to choose the perfect spot for a New Year’s Eve dinner, I recommended Nora’s in Dupont Circle, the first restaurant to be certified organic in the U.S. But my connection to the restaurant goes even deeper. I first learned of it years ago when my good friend, Anne Wolcott, shared Nora’s recipe for Chocolate Carrot Cake that had been published in a culinary magazine.
Anne had it made for her wedding cake and shared it with me, requesting it at some point later for her birthday. At the time, chocolate and carrots sounded perfectly odd together–a forced pairing that didn’t seem necessary or even desirable. However, when I was developing recipes for The Blooming Platter Cookbook–whose focus is seasonal–and was in need of a spring dessert, I decided to veganize and adapt the original vegetarian recipe and see what I thought. I adored it! And I hope you will. The recipe follows at the end of this post.
Back to Restaurant Nora…I asked Jonell if she would mind doing a little investigating to see if it would be appealing to the three omnivores in our party, as I didn’t want to speak for them. She discovered it to be an optimum choice, offering a 5 course omnivorous prefix meal AND a 5 course vegan prefix meal. The only difference between the two–besides the obvious–was that the omnis had several choices for all but the first course and I only had one. But one was all I needed. Each course was perfection!
The meal was light, but plenty filling, full of flavor, stunningly presented, and timed impeccably for an ideal rhythm and flow throughout the evening, lasting about two hours and 45 minutes from start to finish. Plus, the restaurant itself is so warm and inviting. The modern-with-traditional-roots appearance of the Amish and Mennonite quilts that hang on the exposed brick dining room walls embody one of my favorite aspects of Nora’s: a fresh take on classics.
Following are photos of each course (I apologize for the poor light quality), ending with my Chocolate Carrot Cake recipe. But first, here is our party in the lobby of the W ready to hail a cab to Nora’s. My stunning orange dress came from Zara’s that day (on sale!), purchased because Jonell and I had both packed long-sleeved black dresses, black tights, and black ankle boots. No way was I going out dressed as the Bobbsie Twins! My necklace and earrings are from Terri Lindelow’s “Cluster” series.
Jonell & Scott Walthall with Betsy & Joe DiJulio1st Course: winter squash and wild mushroom terrine
1) The first course for all of us was this diminutive but flavorful triangular slice of winter squash and wild mushroom terrine.
2nd course: hearts of palm and mango salad
2) My second course was a shaved hearts of palm and mango salad with pomegranate seeds and a citrusy dressing. (Hearts of palm always remind me of my father; he adores them and we usually put a tin of them in his stocking , but the socks he requested took up most of the space this year.) I have never been served hearts of palm shaved and it was a really nice way to enjoy them.
3rd Course: roasted beet and fruit salad
3) Up next was this shimmering landscape of roasted beets with fresh fruit: juicy and simultaneously earthy and bright. It was almost to beautiful to eat. Almost.
4th Course: vegetable risotto with truffle shavings
4) The most filling of the dishes was, of course, my entree. Still, it wasn’t too much: a creamy and flavorful vegetable risotto with decadent truffle shavings over the top.
5th Course: trio of fresh fruit sorbets
5) For dessert, hot tea plus a trio of fresh fruit sorbets and a cookie called a “Cat’s Tongue.
I love sorbet and it was the ideal ending to this multi-course meal: refreshing and light. But sometimes we vegans want something even more decadent for dessert. If you feel the same, I hope you will enjoy this sneak preview from The Blooming Platter Cookbook:
Vegan Chocolate Carrot Cake from The Blooming Platter Cookbook
Vegan Chocolate Carrot Cake
Yield: 8 servings
When my friend Anne Wolcott raved about the chocolate carrot cake she served at her wedding, “mouth watering” was not the first thought that came to mind. I adore both chocolate and fresh spring carrots, but I didn’t think they could be happily married. However, Nora Pouillon of the eponymous Restaurant Nora in Washington, D.C., knew exactly what she was doing as culinary match-maker. Her cake inspired my vegan version.
Cake:
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons natural sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup walnut oil or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
Ganache:
9 ounces vegan semi-sweet chocolate
chips
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
Garnish:
Halved or chopped pecans or walnuts
1. Cake: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar. Set aside to curdle, whisking a couple of times. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the soy milk mixture, walnut oil, and vanilla. Stir until all ingredients are well combined and no lumps remain. Stir in the carrots.
3. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the side and then invert onto the rack to cool completely, covered with a kitchen towel. Transfer to a serving platter.
4. Ganache: In a double-boiler, heat the chocolate chips until melted, stirring frequently until smooth. Alternatively, you may heat them in a microwave-safe bowl at 20 to 30 second intervals in the microwave, whisking after each. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in the sour cream.
5. To assemble: Frost the top of the cake with the ganache, allowing some to cascade over the edges. Garnish with pecans or walnuts.
In order to be aired on the Superbowl, Huff’s commercial–the brainchild of our friend and VA Beach resident, Jonathan Friedman–needs to be chosen as one of the Top Two by online viewer vote. Jonathan also stands a chance to win $1 million…that’s a lot of dog food!
We hope you will view the commercial, love it, and consider voting up to five times per day per email address (because you can vote at five sites) between now and January 29. Just follow THIS LINK.
By the way, Jonathan, Huff, and co-star, Derek Leonidoff’s, commercial is the ONLY Finalist east of the Rockies! Bring it!
Huff sends you licks and kisses. And he invites you to “lick,” oops, I mean “like” his Facebook page HERE. And please consider sharing on your websites, FB pages, etc.
Today’s post is a toast to all of you faithful Blooming Platterists. May your generosity and support be returned to you many times over in the coming year and beyond!
This “recipe” embodies much of what I wish for my culinary life in 2012: exquisite beauty and indulgent flavors along with ordinary moments made extraordinary with very little fuss.
Not really a recipe, but just a simple method, I “invented” it while sipping Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) before dinner on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants: Terrapin. (Despite the “fishy” name, they prepare exquisite vegan food.)
On each table was a diminutive pot of fresh rosemary. On a whim, I pinched off a little stalk and dropped it into my glass. Not only was the faintly piney aroma and very subtle shift in flavor absolutely irresistible and seductive. But the way the tiny bubbles clustered around each of the rosemary fronds and flickered in the candlelight was sheer magic.
Has it turned chilly where you are? If so, I thought you might appreciate a sneak preview of a nutritious and delicious winter soup that my omnivorous husband asks for by name. If so, just click on the soup name below.
This beautiful “White Bean and Kale Stew” hails from The Blooming Platter Cookbookand was featured this week as the Veg Kitchen’s “Recipe of the Week.” (Thanks, Nava Atlas!) Not the ubiquitous white bean and kale stew that we all know and love, my recipe is extra special with the addition of fennel and vegan sausage.
Fragrant with that faintly anise scent so appealing and particular to fennel, and “kicked-up” with the addition of winter spices, this stew is like aromatherapy in a bowl. And it’s very quick to make.
Our family started a tradition of making a special soup on Christmas Day because none of us wanted to repeat the (healthy) excesses of Thanksgiving less than a month before. Plus we had come not to relish opening presents and then leaping up to hit the kitchen for hours of work–pleasant enough, but work all the same. Our soup tradition takes any residual stress out of the day and has been enjoyed for several years. If you have the same inclinations, this soup would make a lovely choice.
Please, everyone, have yourselves a wonderful holiday. And stay-tuned for my extra special post for New Year’s Eve. It may be the simplest, quickest and most beautiful “recipe”–if you can call it that–that I’ve posted in Blooming Platter history!
And, quickly, if you are in need of a last minute gift, I would like to suggest running out to your local bookseller and snagging a copy of The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes. (You can purchase it for 25% off its regular retail price through December 31!) If you already have purchased one for yourself or others, my sincere thanks! People’s generous support of TBPC has been extraordinary.
