Rhubarb Apricot Muffins

While Tiffany was frosting the last of the wedding cakes, I decided to make some muffins for breakfast. I saw this recipe on My New Roots and couldn't wait to make them. It's rhubarb season so I'm going to take advantage of it : ) Look out for some awesome rhubarb recipes coming up!

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups spelt flour
½ cup rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp orange zest
tbsp. chia seeds + 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup finely chopped rhubarb
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Directions:
1. Stir the chia seeds and water well together in a small bowl and set aside for at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 liners.
3. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, zest, and salt until combined.
4. In another bowl, add the chia seed gel, olive oil, maple syrup, sugar, orange juice and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.

5. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and blend just until moistened. Fold in the rhubarb and apricots.
6. Use 1/4 cup measure to pour batter into 12 muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool on a drying rack.

These are best heated up and served with some Earth Balance buttery spread! The chia seeds give this muffin a great texture and lots of fiber. Yum.

Simple Cilantro Salad

When I saw this post on 101 Cookbooks, I had to make this salad as it is cilantro season. Pretty soon, it will be too hot for cilantro to grow so make it now! I actually liked it so much, I made it as the salad for Mother's Day too. We have an abundance of cilantro at the farm from the winter.

makes about 6 servings
1 cup high heat canola oil
1 cup thinly sliced shallots, about 6
1 large bunch of cilantro with stems (the freshest you can find)
1 tablespoon soy sauce or liquid aminos
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

To make the shallot oil, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat. turn down the heat to medium, sprinkle in the shallots, and cook slowly until they are golden brown for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, strain the oil off into a mason jar. Place the shallots on a paper towel and allow them to cool and crisp. Toast the sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, watching closely to make sure you don't burn them.

Cut off any tough, thick stems from the cilantro. Keep the tender ones. Whisk together the soy sauce, sugar, sea salt, and shallot oil to make the dressing. Place the cilantro, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds in a large bowl. Drizzle the dressing on top and garnish with the crispy shallots.

From the farm:

Molten Lava Cakes

These cakes were made for Mother's Day. I have been making these for years from a recipe I found in a magazine, I believe. I found it online here. It's so simple to make and the ingredients are ones that I readily have on hand. There is a strange ingredient (mayo!) that recipe substitutes for butter which is used in the traditional French recipe. Keep the extra ones (if there are any) because they make a great snack for the next day. They continue to bake if you don't eat them right away, so they turn into perfect fudgy cakes :)

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Line a cupcake pan with either paper liners or silicone liners. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until mostly melted. Stir in the mayonaise gradually until fully incorporated. Then mix in the flour and the sugar. Lastly, mix in the eggs, salt, and the vanilla gently. Spoon the batter into the cups. (This recipe makes about 8-9 little cakes.)
Refrigerate for 1 hour (I kept them at room temperature for an hour and it was fine). Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Bake for 5 minutes. Then check every 30 seconds to 1 minute to see if the surface of the center of the cakes is just set. When the cakes reach this point, take the pan out of the oven and set on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then unmold and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Lemon Olive Oil Banana Bread

This is the first item that has been cooked in our new oven! We are (almost) all moved in and everything is in chaos. I did manage to find enough supplies to make this fantastic bread though. I used Laura's beautiful bundt pan to make the bread. That's a good thing about moving-getting to consolidate all of our kitchen supplies and get more use out of them. The recipe is from 101 Cookbooks of course.

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup (super) ripe bananas
1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons limoncello
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the first four dry ingredients together, then add the chocolate chips. In a separate bowl mix the eggs, olive oil, bananas, and yogurt together. Then add the zest, limoncello, and vanilla extract. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, a little bit at a time until no loose flour can be seen. Grease and flour a bundt pan and pour the batter in. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until golden brown. There was a glaze recipe with the bread too, but it really didn't turn out for me. The bread is great on its own.

Spring Rolls

Since we just harvested lettuce and trimmed some thai basil at the farm, I was compelled to make some vegetarian spring rolls. It is spring time after all! I surprised Nick and Brittany with a picnic in Schenley Park instead of packing for the big move. Whoops. It was such a gorgeous day to be outside though. I coudn't resist!

spring roll wrappers
vermicelli noodles
thai basil
lettuce
carrots, sliced thinly
cucumbers, sliced thinly
sesame seeds
marinated tempeh
additional options or alternatives: mint, cilantro, sacred basil, shrimp, pork belly

I used bacon that was made from tempeh marinated in soy sauce. Cook the tempeh until golden brown over medium heat, turning over to cook both sides.

Slice all the veggies. Cook the rice noodles in boiling water for 1-2 minutes until soft and strain. I like to lay everything out on a plate, ready to be wrapped up.

Fill a large bowl with hot tap water. Take a wrapper and dip it in the water, wetting all parts of it quickly. Set down on a plate and wait 30 seconds for the rice paper to soften. Meanwhile, layer all ingredients and wrap like a little burrito!

almond butter dipping sauce:

3/4 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used liquid aminos)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2-3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup tahini sauce
1/4 cup water to thin
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
3 garlic cloves, crushed

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Keep adding ingredients until the sauce tastes just right. Use the sauce for dipping the spring rolls in!