As much as this whole grain peach pie was a gift for Annie, it was also a gift for me. It felt so good to be able to bake for someone else again, to share, even if sharing looks differently these days. It felt reviving to truly play with food again, not for work, not for money but for the delight of someone else.
"I'm a genius," he proclaimed, then looked at me like a used car salesmen and an online guru in one. "Follow me on this. Pumpkin pie. Pecan Pie. Everybody wants both. Why do they have to be separate? [dramatic pause] Just combine them in one pie! One pie! A Pumpcan Pie!" Then he mimed a mic drop and took credit for everything that proceeds from here (except the chocolate chips. They were my own rogue doing.)
Pie guide after pie guide will tell you, with great emphasis, "do not overwork the dough," but where are all those pie guides when the liquid is spent, and the dough resembles a swath of desert? CRICKETS! The whole process puts my perfectionist self on edge because all I want is to deliver the flaky pie crust that friends and family (and sometimes complete strangers) expect, and I want it to be whole grain. That's challenging enough, but then, you want to make a gluten free whole grain pie crust? Well, here it is!
You won't be able to share this Turmeric Pie with everyone, but it's a step in the right direction. It's dairy free, but it's not vegan. It's gluten free, but it's not nut free. It's an attempt to share, and if you really know your crowd, it just might work. The main offender for my crowd was gluten, so this Turmeric Pie did the trick.
Corn for dessert? If it’s sweet, creamy and tastes like ice cream like this Frozen Corn Tart with a Chocolate Crust, then heck yesss!
My eyes were GLUED to the enigmatic recording software, lines flaring like a frenetic life-support monitor. The producer/engineer clipped, elongated, patched and layered vocals like a wizard. He added flourishes that lodged little tunes in my brain and made me reconsider every song I’d ever heard- how little I had appreciated the magnitude of work that goes into each song!
How does a stylist/blogger end up in a recording studio?
I was there for a work related project (I will definitely tell you more about why I was there when I can), pinching myself that my path and the good people in my life would bring me here. What I can tell you is, when life seems the most random, or when career tangents make little to no sense on paper but make my face hurt from smiling, that’s when my life feels the most on track.
Corn for dessert may seem random or as out of place as me in a recording studio (especially if you hear me sign- ha!), but I assure you, once you try this Frozen Corn Tart, sweet corn as a sweet conclusion will make sense.
Roasting the corn brings out its natural sweetness. Blending those sweet kernels with rich, healthy coconut cream yields an ice cream like dessert on a chocolate cornmeal crust. I’m nothing if not thematic.
And what’s a sweet corn treat without a little caramel? Argentina (and more alfajores than I could count) taught me that. If you’re feeling ambitious, try my homemade Scotch Caramel, or Smoked Sea Salt Whiskey Caramel, or if all your energy is spent after roasting and pureeing corn, I have it on good authority Whole Foods has an organic caramel that you can justify using as a little indulgence.
So here’s to the random adventures, the events and tangents that make little sense on paper but lead to a sweet conclusion.
Cheers,
About this Recipe: Sweet and creamy, like a good scoop of ice cream, but made with wholesome ingredients and healthier sweeteners. I use honey, but you can easily substitute another sweetener for a vegan version.
This Frozen Peach Tart uses whipped coconut milk for a vegan, creamy, summer treat! "We're having company over" were the four words I loved to hear as a kid. It…
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. But around here, we celebrate with butter and flour!
Harmony- it's something I have been think about a lot lately. I wish I were preoccupied with harmony musically, but rather, I think about harmony in the sense of differences working together to create something richer, something stronger. I believe there is a sweet spot, a harmonious juncture where nature and modernity could coexist, like the harmony of a sweet and salty sprinkling on a dessert, this dessert- a Vegan Chocolate Tart with Salted Oat Crust.