Gothic Granola

Doing things a little differently today.

Sometimes aggressively remaking a recipe yields better results. I have made these waffles three times now and the last time, while not perfect, was the best of all three. These are more anti-James food since I used both avocados and strawberries, both of which are foods to which my brother objects. Good thing I made these just for me! I mucked up my waffle iron with the wet batter in the process, but I consider it well broken-in now. The cocoa makes the avocado taste more apparent, I think, unless it’s obscured with lots of sweetener. The strawberry version below has no cocoa.

Why limit the potential of fruit? Roasting figs is the second best way to eat them, in my opinion, second to dried figs. I call this side dish a fall preview since roasting is a more energy-intense cooking method appropriate to complement the winding down of summer. Abbreviating the name of this dish would be FFEO, but I don't think this is an ugly recipe (feo is ugly en espanol). I seemed to have been on a purple kick since the figs, onion. and eggplant were all of the same hue. Maybe I should call it Figs Royale since purple is the colour of royalty in the ancient world...but then why choose a French adjective for a Greco-Roman concept? Too much thinking as a side dish, enjoy my favourite way to eat vegetables: al horno.

They really do. I served over 250 squares of cacao goji hemp protein bars on Wednesday for Foodie Call. This week's theme was Whole Body, the supplements department. I modified this superfood bar from Earthsprout , having bookmarked the idea when Eleanor included it in her newsletter earlier this year.

To me, the devil is sugar because it is so damn addicting. These donuts are coated in it. Therefore, they truly are devil's food. I saved this recipe from Vegetarian Times  in 2010 a few months into the whole veganism thing. I bought a donut pan about a year after saving the recipe. And I made the recipe about three years after finding it!

Yesterday's Foodie Call second place winner was my Peach Cheesecake. I brainstormed it while rock-wall-climbing with friends that morning. I think I have a new addiction...rock climbing! This is convenient since there's a good gym on the road where I live and being further away from D.C. means I'm closer to parks and good scrambling/bouldering areas.

How 'bout a little evil in your cake? As in, how about Q hides a can of beans in your cake and you don't know and you eat it and you love it anyway despite the fact that you think the "musical fruit" is the devil's instrument?

And if you're not a believer, is it really my job to make you one?

And if you're not a believer, is it really my job to make you one?

When life at my alma interfector got to be too much, every weekend in my junior of college year I went home. Most weeks, my mom gave me a bunch of bananas to bring to school. Being only one person, I ate about half once they became ripe enough to eat. The rest I brought home and we made the Banana Date Walnut scones from Veganomicon , a version of which I posted here last year . Honestly, the most negative thing about my current job is that it's difficult to get two days off in a row in order to travel. Once I had my own car and the means (and NJ highway-driving confidence) to pick up and go places, I did. My dad travels for his job most days a week; I think it's some kind of wanderlust (and a decent sense of direction) in my blood that makes me want to travel.

Avocados are a polarizing ingredient, like cilantro. Either you think it’s the bee’s knees or you think it’s the devil’s hooves. Wednesday’s Foodie Call challenge ingredient was avocado. It’s nice to have over 200 recipes from which to choose (and that’s just my blog right here). I Vitamixed some avobachoco . As my student job supervisor said when I made it in 2012, many customers confirmed that it would be a great baby food. Funny, I forgot that it contained almond butter until I checked the recipe just now.