ariel's making ... upside down loquat, plum, banana, sage cake

i love love love loquats! and in san francisco, you can find them all over the place growing on trees. no one really seems to eat them much -- so start looking around ... they are tangy and sweet and have beautiful seeds inside.

on the 4th of july we had a big bbq in the backyard (fotos here!) and i was in charge of dessert. we had a bunch of very ripe loquats, so i thought i'd make a cake. first i halved and de-pitted the loquats.

then i made the cake batter:

3/4 stick of organic butter

1 c. organic powdered sugar

1 organic egg

2 very ripe organic bananas

1/2 c. backyard plum sauce (that recipe coming soon!) ... you can use jam instead.

1/2 t. of baking soda and baking powder

1 1/2 c. organic w.w. flour

1 c. organic almond flour

mix together!

then i chopped in some fresh sage.

in a frying pan i added 1/4 t. of butter, melted it and then added the loquats and cooked them for about 3 minutes. then, leaving the loquats in the pan, i added the batter on top and put it in the oven at 400* for about 30 minutes.

right when it came out of the oven, i flipped it onto a plate -- and ta-da! upside down loquat cake!

i also made a simple ricotta cheese topping with a little sugar and ginger in it, that i dolloped onto of the cake as i was serving it. there was none left -- i think it was a hit!

happy loquat foraging!

kisses,

ariel

Karina makes "Chicken" "Noodle" Soup...

The cold weather has arrived in San Francisco and since the heat doesn't seem to work in my apartment, I decided to warm-up in the good-old Campbell's soup commercial kind of way. Even though I don't eat meat anymore and didn't want something heavy like pasta, I decided to make a version on the most comforting soup I could possibly think of from my childhood: Chicken Noodle Soup. Solution- simply use spaghetti squash and tempeh.


First I simmered organic onions, garlic, dried porcini mushrooms, peas, quinoa, sage and the stems and leafs of beets in a pot of vegetable stock and water for an hour or so to really bring out the flavors. I spiced with my usual salt, pepper, cayenne, curry and paprika. I then put this stock in a blender to get a smooth consistency and added it back to the pot.

I cut a spaghetti squash in half, gutted it and put it in the oven on 400* for 30 minutes or so until it was soft and ready to fork out.

In a pan I sauteed onions and tempeh in a bit of olive oil & braggs until golden brown.

I added the spaghetti squash "noodles", onions, tempeh, organic fresh spinach, and peanuts to the stock and simmered for a long time. I spiced it as I stirred along the way, making sure my precious ingredients were being flavored as best as possible. Then I turned to any soup's best friend- a dynamite salad! First to take care of the dressing...

I scoped out what ingredients I had left. Still had some amazing fresh organic sage, peanuts, lime and tahini so they were obviously in. It would be foolish to think I would ever leave garlic and ginger out if I had them (which I always make sure to do) so I added them all in the blender and started spicing and flavoring.

All of us in the house were so blown away with how creamy and delicious this dressing was, it was hard to leave any for the salad!

Speaking of the salad..

I made a fresh salad base with all of my favorite friends from the Haight Street Co-Op. Organic mixed greens, spinach, cucumber, avocado, pomegranate seeds, carrots, and peanuts.

I made a delicious sautee of fresh asparagus, mushrooms and onions, spiced it and threw it on top.

I tossed it all together with my sage-tahini peanut dressing...

...and the two lived happily ever after in our warm and satisfied bellies.

Who needs central heating?!