Gluten-Free Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten-free muffins with strawberries and chocolate chips.

The moon rose almost full last night, hanging gold and low above the palm and ficus trees, urging the local beauty factor to give up its pretense of reality and meld with dreamland. The sky was a deep shade of violet with a wash of strawberry pink at the ocean's edge. Santa Monica continues to hold me in her sway. I am in love with her- and deeply grateful to be here, celebrating my first spring in California since the late seventies. I drink the friendly March sea air in gulps. I wander the alleys and sidewalks in a state bordering on bliss, photographing details and eye candy with my iPhone. It is a visual feast.

And I am savoring every bite.

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Julia's Spiced "is there any more?" Apple Pie

We were heading over to the in-law's for a games night last night, so I decided I should bring some desserty-type thing for a treat (ok, so it's not the first time, I'm sure it won't be the last). But with the early onset of les printemps here in Edmonton, I am craving fruit - and lots of it. Sure, none of it is local at this time of year - (yes I would completely fail at being a locavore, but

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Blue Corn Bread with Orange Agave Butter

Recently I was strolling through the aisles of Planet Organic, one of the specialty organic stores in town. It's an interesting place to go for unique and hard to find ingredients such as cocoa nibs or agave syrup, but also for inspiration, not to mention all of the top-notch organic produce. One thing I happened upon last trip was some Blue Cornmeal. Hmmm... interesting. The package says it

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Gluten-Free Banana "Crumpets"

Split and grill these sweet no yeast "crumpets" for extra flavor.

I started out craving a scone. Then it turned into a crumpet. Not a traditional crumpet. A crumpet without yeast. And sweet. Not because I have anything against yeast (I dig my English Muffins bigtime), but because I had a bevy of ripe bananas hanging out on my kitchen counter, whispering to me, coaxing me to imagine a new recipe and highlight their fragrant banana awesomeness. So that's how it all started.

But I was low on gluten-free flours.

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Maple Roasted Banana Ice Cream without Dairy

Roasting bananas makes for vegan ice cream yum.

I never bought David Lebovitz's ice cream book The Perfect Scoop because I'm allergic to dairy, and well. To be candid, a book brimming with rich and sexy recipes built around cream and butter and brown-eyed moo cow milk would just be, you know. Depressing as hell. I'd have to reinterpret and rebuild almost every recipe in the book to be dairy-free and huevo-free- except granita, and a sorbet or two. Yawn.

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Brownies to welcome Spring

As Spring approaches, I feel happiness and excitement. I love the sunshine during this time of the year, not very hot, just the right amount of heat you need to feel good and enjoy the joyful weather. Spring puts a smile on my face. For me, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Although for me brownies rhyme with winter, comfort food...etc and despite the weather these days that says "winter is over", I wanted  brownies! I haven't made them for some time, and I guess I missed their chocolaty goodness.

I made and ate my first brownie when I came to the US, ten years ago. Of course I heard about them before, but due to French cooking influence, brownies have never been on my to do list. In some of my French cookbooks, brownies are found under the title: "The American Specialty" and somehow, I always felt it was too adventurous to try them, plus it always calls for a lot of chocolate! Now, I am glad I made this sweet discovery. It is for sure a part of my repertoire.

Brownies

I just want to mention that I made half the recipe in my 8 by 8 cake pan, that's why my brownies are kind of flat. But it worked fine for me because they were lighter (not calorie wise though!)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

300 g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp instant coffee

pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1- Preheat the oven to 375. Grease an 8 by 8 square cake pan. line with foil and set aside.

2- Combine the chocolate, butter and instant coffee and melt over a double boiler. Set aside to cool.

3- Whisk the eggs and the sugars until well combined. Add the vanilla extract. Whisk in the melted chocolate.

5- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the nuts if using.

6- Put the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool completely before cutting.

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Happy Pie Day!

23 eggs1.6 kg of butter7 lemons400 g of chocolate800 g of Saskatoons600 g Nutella1.2 kg flour500 g sugar14 pies for Pi Day
(for those of you questioning my sanity, you're not alone...)


Pi Day is finally here! Yes, it is officially a day observed by math geeks around the world (I use the term "geek" with nothing but affection - I consider myself to be a food geek), but I don't see any reason

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