Yesterday at Alice’s Tea Cup, Chapter Two, on East 64th.

Indian Chai with milk & honey.

Chocolate chip & coconut scone on the left, lemon blueberry on the right. Jam and clotted cream are most necessary. 

Pumpkin scone above, strawberry cream cheese scone below. The former tasted like October.

Christmas tea, to go with the pumpkin scone. Quite heavy on the cloves.

Last night at dinner with my boyfriend’s family I ate liver and onions to prove my cred after he asked if I ‘needed help ordering.’ Last year we did eight days of vegan kosher for Passover together (advice: never try to make vegetable sushi with a potato ricer instead of sushi rice) but now that I’m back to omnivorous eating, this year the biggest struggle will be waiting to open the $50 order that arrived yesterday from Peanut Butter & Co.

I like liver as much as the next girl, but I was really excited for leftover flourless chocolate cake and coconut macaroons for breakfast. I grew up eating macaroons, my Italian father’s favorite cookie.

“Culinary historians believe macaroons can be traced to an Italian monastery. The monks came to France in 1533, joined by the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henri II. Later, two Benedictine nuns, Sister Marguerite and Sister Marie-Elisabeth, came seeking asylum during the French Revolution. The two women paid for their housing by baking and selling macaroon cookies, and thus became known as the “Macaroon Sisters.” Recipes for macaroons (also spelled “mackaroon,” “maccaroon” and “mackaroom”) appear in recipe books at least as early as 1725 (Robert Smith’s Court Cookery, or the Complete English Cook).

Italian Jews later adopted the cookie because it has no flour or leavening (macaroons are leavened by egg whites) and can be enjoyed during the eight-day observation of Passover. It was introduced to other European Jews and became popular as a year-round sweet. Over time, coconut was added to the ground almonds and, in certain recipes, replaced them.”

- Wikipedia

I was recently asked by my raw-food friend Stacy to guest on her Whole Bodies/Whole Foods series. Below are the raw recipes that I put together for her. The ingredients in raw food recipes can sometimes be daunting - you may not have solid cacao butter or raw ground vanilla bean in your pantry. Sunfood Nutrition is a great resource, and just a few purchases (raw cacao, coconut oil) can carry you through recipes from morning superfood shakes to decadent raw chocolate desserts.  

Carrot ginger salad dressing:

• 1 large or 2 small carrots
• 1/2 large cucumber
• 2 tbsp chopped scallions
• 1 tbsp fresh raw ginger (about a one-inch piece)
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 1 handful fresh dill
• 2 tbsp raw tahini
• 2 tbsp raw unpasteurized white miso paste
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp cold-pressed sesame oil
• 1/2 cup filtered cold water

1. Peel and slice carrots, ginger and cucumber and place in a blender (Vitamix works best) or food processor along with scallions, parsley, dill, tahini, miso, vinegar and sesame oil.
2. Add water bit by bit until the consistency is how you like it. 

 
Chocolate tahini truffles:

• 4 tbsp raw tahini
• 3 tbsp + 1/4 cup raw cacao powder 
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp raw ground vanilla bean
• 2 tsp cacao butter or coconut oil
• 1 tsp liquid (raw almond or coconut milk)

1. Blend all ingredients except for 1/4 cup raw cacao powder in a food processor until they form a dough-like ball. If your dough is too oily, blot with a paper towel. 
2. Roll the dough into ten gumball-sized truffles. Roll each truffle in the remaining cacao powder to coat. Freeze or refrigerate for at least an hour or until ready to eat.

This morning I finished crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s on a fantastic new job. It hits the intersection of my passions for food and writing, it’s in downtown New York City, and it’s an opportunity to work with an incredible team on the vital project of getting people back into cooking. Basically, it’s my dream job, and I couldn’t be happier. It does, however, mean that I’ll be leaving Chicago sooner than I’d expected, and when I got the news this morning I was suddenly overwhelmed by a flurry of things that I felt needed to be done before I fly back to New York. People I haven’t gotten a chance to see yet, boxes in my parents’ storage space that need to be gone through to excavate my work-appropriate wardrobe. A last-minute plane ticket to book, temporary housing arrangements to settle, to-do lists to make! I took a deep breath and started doing the first thing on the list, the thing that I knew would calm my nerves and organize my thoughts. I made cookies.

Chocolate macaroon cookies:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk or coconut milk (more if needed)
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add in remaining ingredients until a thick batter is formed. Add more liquid as needed.
3. Form batter into half-inch spheres and place an inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake about 12 minutes or until coconut appears golden and cookies are solid to the touch (they will firm up as they cool). Makes two batches.

Hosting a dinner party is a perfect opportunity to bring together all sorts of people that you enjoy spending time with, even if those people have diets and food preferences that are as varied as their professions and politics. Rather than falling back on unobjectionable standbys when cooking to please an eclectic crowd, a Mediterranean menu can provide enticing and unusual options for vegans, vegetarians, health-conscious eaters, and devoted carnivores alike.

1. Guy Fieri’s roasted red pepper hummus: As pretty as it is palatable, this red pepper hummus can be adjusted to suit your threshold for spice. If you’re using dried chickpeas, soaking them overnight shortens their cooking time dramatically.

[more recipes after the cut]

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