Karina Does Betty Does!

I have a lovely and impressive friend, Jesse Silver, who recently teamed up with other lovely and impressive women to start the online magazine, Betty Does.

Betty Does is a new San Francisco collective publication celebrating women and their work.

I had been following their posts and reading their interviews since they began a few months ago, so to say I was thrilled and flattered beyond belief when Jesse asked me to be her first interviewee is an understatement.

She asked to interview me about my cake making, food blogging, and acting, and we decided it would be fun to make a cake in the process. Since the lovely and impressive Betty photographer, Margo Moritz, was also coming over to document the interview, I offered to make them both dinner as well...



Like so many people out there, Jesse has a gluten intolerance so I decided to recycle an old idea I had of using shreddings of zucchini for a pasta rather than wheat noodles.


I made a vegan pesto by blending raw cashews I had soaked overnight with a few handfuls of organic basil, several cloves of garlic, a squeezed lemon, olive oil, sea salt, cayenne and pepper in the food processor.


I wanted to make some type of protein in the form of a "meatball" for the pasta, so I quickly improvised with the left over quinoa dish I had made the night before. I started by chopping some carrots, raw almonds, and sunflower seeds in the food processor.


I added a cup or two of the leftover quinoa dish I had made that consisted of quinoa, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, spinach, apples, vegan sausage and the lot of my usual spicing (salt, pepper, cumin, curry, cayenne, cinnamon, braggs and lemon.) I also threw in a few spoon fulls of organic re-fried beans I had open to help bind the mixture when it came to forming balls.




I heated up sunflower oil (good for high heat) and lightly fried them on all sides until they were crunchy on the outside.


I then set them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.


I boiled water in a pan and cooked my "zuc noods" for a few minutes until soft and then drained them.


In another pan, I sauteed an onion, some garlic, and several shitake mushrooms in olive oil and then salt and peppered them.


I threw the mushrooms and onions in with the pesto and "noodles" and mixed well.


I made a fresh salad of lettuce, spinach, orange segments, avocado, snap peas and almond slivers and tossed with a tahini-tomato dressing.


The Betties seemed quite pleased! Jesse brought a lovely Riesling to accompany the meal and it all made for a perfect appetizer to the Mango-Ginger-Sage cake that was made! (Coming soon in the Betty Does article!)

ariel's making ... carrot and zucchini cake

for my auntie yam's bday i decided to make her a carrot and zucchini cake. oh so healthy, right?


for this cake, you'll need:

1 c. grated organic carrots
1 grated organic zucchini
1/2 c. organic molasses
1 organic free-range egg
1 stick organic butter, melted
2 T. organic cinnamon
1/4 c. each of organic raisins, organic sunflower seeds and organic shredded coconut
1/2 t. each of baking powder and baking soda
1/2 c. organic fair-trade sugar
1 1/4 c. organic whole wheat flour

mix everything together except the flour. then add the flour to the wet mixture. (it's really that simple!)




pour the thick cake batter into a buttered cast iron pan and bake 350* for about 25 minutes or until it passes the clean toothpick test.


i topped it with some organic fair-trade powdered sugar and two tiny-mini organic carrots when it was all cool, and served it with some straus vanilla ice cream.


there was probably enough cake for about ten people ... but the five of us had no trouble devouring almost the whole thing in one night!

happy baking!

kisses,

ariel

Karina makes ..."Zuc Noods" with Vegan Avocado alfredo

I ate in this beautiful vegan restaurant in San Diego once where they had a Zucchini Noodle Pasta Dish on the menu. At the time my friend and I were too full and wanted only juices and an appetizer, but we obsessed on the idea of these "Zucc Noods" and were determined to come back and try them. Much to our devastation, the restaurant closed down for "renovation" only the next week and never seemed to open their doors again...

The other night I was craving a dish that was indulgent and satisfying in taste, but not too hard on the belly. When I looked at the fresh, organic produce I had just purchased and noticed I had picked up a great deal of zucchini, my desire to find out what these mysterious Zucc Noods could be all about flashed into my mind.

I had a big bunch of carrots as well as zucchini, so I decided I would combine the two to make my "pasta" that much more colorful, delicious, and nutritious. I experimented with several different ways to cut them into a noodle, and found simply peeling strips off with a carrot peeler worked the best for me.

I sprinkled the prepped noodles with lemon and stuck them in the fridge to stay crisp and fresh until boiling time.

I still had a bag of raw cashews left over, so I started the process of making a vegan sauce by soaking them this time. Me always being the experimenter that I am, decided I would soak them in OJ to give them a little citrus twist.

After several hours in the OJ, I drained them and added them into the food processor with 3 cloves of garlic, 2 tbls tahini, 3/4 ripe avocado, 1/2 red onion, a few leafs of basil, a bunch of spinach, 2 tbls earth balance, a splash of braggs, a few squirts of fresh lemon juice, a few shakes of salt, pepper, cayenne, sage, & paprika. I added some olive oil while it blended to make sure it was really smooth.

I heated some water on the stove and boiled my zucc and carrot noods for only a few mintutes (prob 5 or so) until they were soft and tender but not mushy.

After draining the water, I mixed in my vegan avocado "alfredo" and simmered on low until the sauce was warm. In the oven I had been preparing my pasta toppings: roasted shiitake mushrooms, garlic, and onions that I baked with olive oil, braggs, lemon, salt and pepper for about 45 minutes at 400*. I prepared a fresh spin salad with fresh organic heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil and lemon to go with it...

And finally devoured my fantasy feast of zucc noods! (I don't know how that restaurant actually prepared their dish, but let's just say they may have had a little competition coming their way...)