Tag Archives: spices

Celery and Radish Salad with Avocado and Toasted Cumin Vinaigrette

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Danguole| 9 Comments

Two items on the agenda today! Well, three if you count the salad.

In fact, I can cover the salad ground briefly right now: it’s fresh, it’s seasonal, it’s healthy, it’s vegan, it’s crunchy and avocado-creamy, and it’s delicious. It’s also completely self-explanatory, which allows me to talk about something else with you today. Selfish, I know, but sometimes these things can speak for themselves… Everyone knows that celery is especially eloquent.

Anyway, I was reading this lovely post by my friend Sara the other day, and it reminded me of something I thought of a while back and keep meaning to discuss.

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Posted in Healthy (?), Picnic food, Salad, Sides, Spring, Summer, Vegetarian

Tagged avocado, celery, cilantro, cumin, pepitas, radishes, salad, spices, toasted cumin, vegan, vegetarian

Banana, Hazelnut and Cinnamon Scones

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Danguole| 11 Comments

Spring Forward… You have cost me one whole episode of Teen Mom 2. Thanks? I guess? I mean, I’d be mad if I were doing something valuable with my time. Like baking scones. If you’d taken these away, we might have to have capital-w Words. Maybe all-caps WORDS.

Ah, spring forward. The controversy! Morning people and night people: it takes all kinds. We can’t all do everything at once; that’d be madness. Like baking. Some of us get down with night baking, some of us wake up naturally with the sun, drink some green juice/chamomile tea/virgin blood (I don’t know how you people operate, forgive me) and bake up breakfast goods at an appropriate time.

Either way, we will have scones. Tender, slightly sweet, dotted with heavenly banana chunks and toasty hazelnuts.

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Posted in Baking, banana, Breakfast, Vegetarian, weekend

Tagged baked goods, baking, banana, breakfast, buttermilk, cinnamon, hazelnut, nuts, pastries, scones, spices

Orange and Cardamom Infused Cold-Brewed Coffee

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Danguole| 7 Comments

Guess who went to a concert 3.5 hours away on a Monday night… Then came back the same night… Then went to work Tuesday morning and stayed for almost 12 hours? Simple math tells us: that is too many hours of traveling and rocking out and working. And not enough of sleeping.

I don’t know if I’m bragging or telling you that I’m a GIANT IDIOT.

Maybe not that much of an idiot, because this was waiting for me at home. A pitcher of coffee in your fridge can fix anything.

So, just what is the deal with cold brewing? To recap, it’s making coffee without heat–mix and let it sit, then filter. I first posted it early last summer, but it’s been a year-round staple for me ever since. And believe me, I love nothing more than steaming milk for a cappuccino on a winter morning, but that kind of luxury ain’t suited for the M-F of a busy life, baby.

Cold-brewed coffee is an easy, convenient solution, and even the plain-Jane version tastes far superior than hot-brewed and iced coffee. This time, we’re taking things to a fancy new level: infusing our concoction with orange and cardamom. Fragrant citrus and warm spice: good morning, sunshine! It’s so, so very lovely. I normally drink my cold brew black, but this version, combined with some unsweetened (sweetened would be great too, obviously) vanilla almond milk, is just out of this world.

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Posted in Drinks, fruit, Healthy (?)

Tagged cardamom, citrus, coffee, cold brewed, cold brewing, infused coffee, infusing, orange, spices, zest

Harissa

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Danguole| 3 Comments

Check it out! I made harissa, and I can’t stop myself. A dollop atop my eggs. Slathered on sandwiches. I may even have a pizza situation happening. I would say it’s my new Sriracha/Valentina/Cholula, but we know that isn’t true. There are people who can’t have enough spicy condiments around, and I am one of them. Hi there.

Harissa hails from North Africa, and although I’m clearly just using it as a condiment at the moment, it’s also used as a flavor base for soups, stews and meat dishes. I’ll utilize it properly at some point.

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Posted in Condiments, Healthy (?), Vegetarian

Tagged chile peppers, guajillo chiles, harissa, moroccan, new mexico chiles, north african, red peppers, spices, spicy

Chicken Pho (Pho Ga)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Danguole| 5 Comments

You may not know this, but… Sometimes, I actually do behave like a real-life 20something-year-old. I just have to nap first.

But yes, sometimes I go out. Sometimes this happens in cold weather. In my book, if you can see your breath and you’re in for a long Reno night (no such thing as last call here, after all), there’s no better place to start it than the Vietnamese restaurant sandwiched between a pawn shop and a liquor store. I mean, really–cheap, authentic, relatively quick, massively delicious food. It’s at the top of “things I miss about Reno” lists of all Reno expats who know what’s good.

Specifically in terms of preparing you for evening revelry, you can’t go wrong with Vietnamese coffee (Red Bull is for college kids, not that there’s anything wrong with that) and a bowl of hot, steaming pho. Filling, but not sluggifying, it warms you from within for that trek to your first watering hole of the night.

So why am I even bothering to make this at home? I don’t know. Because I can?