Currently Cooking

Coconut + Lime Chia Pudding

1 1/2 cups organic coconut milk

2 tbs honey

3 tbs chia seeds (I like to use the black variety, it looks lovely against the white coconut milk)

Juice 1 lime

Coconut flakes

1. Add coconut milk, honey, and chia seeds to a mixing bowl

2. Stir until honey dissolves

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight

4. Add lime juice to chilled chia seeds and milk

5. Serve into small bowl or glasses and garnish with toasted coconut flakes

Serves four

Inspiration + Photo: Lush Loves

Currently Cooking

Zucchini Pasta with Vegan Pesto

Vegan Pesto

2 cups tightly packed fresh basil

1/2cup walnuts or pine nuts

1 to 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (to taste)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Zucchini Noodles

4-5 small to medium zucchini

olive oil

1 cup pitted and sliced cherries

lemon zest

shelled pistachios

Combine basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and garlic in blender or food processor. Blend until paste forms, stopping often to push down basil. Add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and salt; blend until smooth. Transfer to small bowl.

Place zucchini over a large bowl and use a julienne peeler or spiralizer to create noodles. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top and toss to coat. Spoon pesto over the noodles and toss with your fingers or two forks to coat. Add more pesto as needed.

Optional: Top with chopped pistachios, halved cherries, and a bit of lemon zest. Serve immediately.

Inspiration + photo: Edible Perspective

Currently Cooking

Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

1 cup blueberries/peaches/cherries

1 banana, sliced

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1-2 tbsp real maple syrup/agave

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup of coconut/almond milk

Mix warm quinoa with maple syrup and cinnamon

Add fruit and almonds

Serve into bowls (makes 2 servings)

Pour favorite milk on top

Photo: The Wheatless Kitchen

Currently Cooking

Kale Salad + Honey Vinaigrette

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp finely minced shallot

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

black pepper to taste

4 cups of curly kale, stems removed, shredded

1. Whisk vinegar with shallots, honey, olive oil, salt, and pepper

2. Massage kale and vinaigrette until evenly coated

3. Place marinated kale in a glass container and refrigerate overnight

4. Serve the next day with additional toppings such as avocado slices, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts or beets

Photo: Bloglovin

In the Studio: Hannah Nunn

“I’m very inspired by the beauty and intricacy of plants and flowers and love to make botanical studies by drawing with light and shadow. I enjoy walking in our beautiful countryside with my camera and collecting ideas and I’m lucky to have a fantastic flower shop close to home which is a feast for the senses and keeps me in ideas!”

For Hannah Nunn, a normal work day involves sketching flowers and strolling through woodlands. It’s here that she draws inspiration for her delicate lamps. Using a laser cutter or Japanese screw punch, Nunn carefully incises thin parchment to create intricate thistle, parsley, or budding flowers. She then laminates the paper, fastens with clips, and inserts a lightbulb tripod. The end result is a spectacular display of light and shadow—an illuminated meadow brought to the inside of your home.

Good Reads

The Plant Recipe Book

The author, Baylor Chapman, is the founder of Lila B. Design, a floral and plant design studio in San Francisco.

Much like the stunning Flower Recipe Book from Studio Choo, The Plant Recipe Book breaks down the art of potting plants to a single leaf. Overflowing with beautiful photographs from Paige Green, this is a book for color inspiration, plant arranging, and day dreaming.

Currently Cooking

Blueberry + Sea Salt Popsicles

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours, rinsed and drained.

2½ cups filtered water

2 tablespoons light agave syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

a pinch or 2 of sea salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine the soaked cashews, water, agave, vanilla, and sea salt in a high speed blender.
Blend for 2 minutes.
Set aside.
Combine blueberries, vanilla, and ½ cup of the prepared cashew milk in your blender.
Fill your popsicle molds half way with cashew milk. Fill the rest of the molds with the blueberry puree.
Freeze molds for about 1 hour and then insert a wooden popsicle stick into each pop. Return to the freezer for another 4-6 hours or until frozen solid.

Photo: Beard&Bonnet

Last Supper in Brooklyn

Before I left New York, a friend asked me where I wanted to have my farewell dinner. The decision weighed heavy on my shoulders.

I adored so many restaurants. There were places that I shared glasses of wine with friends, laughed over pizza, and talked intimately over candlelight.

There were Saturday brunches that started with mimosas and quiche and ended with espressos and soufflés at night.

I thought of all the wine bars, gastropubs, and cafes in Manhattan. But I knew they wouldn’t suffice.

It was Brooklyn that stole my heart and it was in Brooklyn that I would eat.

The James was a 15 minute stroll from our apartment in Prospect Heights.

Nestled in the corner of St. Marks and Carlton Avenue, the restaurant blends into the neighboring brownstones and trees. If you peer into the side window, you’ll see locals enjoying gin and mint cocktails at the bar or slices of brioche at leather booths in the back.

The night of my farewell dinner, I sat at the bar, backlit by an expansive aged mirror. Like everything at The James, each detail has character and texture, a feeling that it’s been there for decades.

Around 8:30 pm, the setting sun streamed through the windows and bounced off the vintage mirror to make bottles of wine and gin glow from within.

This is what I wanted to remember—Brooklyn glowing.

I started with my usual: a shredded black kale salad, sprinkled with quinoa, crushed smoked almonds, shaved ricotta, and a perfectly poached egg on top.

Other items on the menu include Rhode Island scallops with a couscous crust sitting on roasted baby beets and a lemon-thyme broth and trofie pasta with organic mushrooms, pecorino toscano, and sweet marjoram.

I’m a firm believer in dessert and considered getting the lavender crème brûlée with a marinated berry salad but decided to end dinner with an espresso and cream. I slowly sipped on my coffee, inhaled the roasted aroma, and relished in my last moments, my last supper in Brooklyn.

What is it then between us?

What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?

Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not,

I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine — Walt Whitman

Currently Cooking

Chilled Avocado and Coconut Soup

2 avocados, peeled and pitted

3 inches (7 cm) cucumber, peeled and cut into smaller pieces

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup coconut milk

4 tbsp lemon juice

4-8 drops tabasco

a handful chives, chopped

3 stems dill

2 ice cubes

1 tsp salt

Toppings

a drizzle of olive oil

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped

dill & chives, chopped

1. Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender.

2. Mix it until completely smooth.

3. Season to taste.

4. Serve immediately or chill in the fridge

5. Add a splash of olive oil, a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds, and a pinch of chopped chives and dill.

Recipe and photo from David and Luise at Green Kitchen Stories.

Masala Chai

During my sophomore year of college, I packed my bags and flew to Mumbai.

I didn’t see India at first. I smelled it. Burnt garbage, car exhaust, chicken masala. I was hit with smells as thick as concrete.

Drunkenly, I boarded a bus and called my mother. Unfortunately for her (and the bikers outside the bus), I quickly hung up to expell my half digested dinner to the street below. India: 1 Hannah: 0

At my hostel, I was sweaty from the intense summer humidity; I wanted to collapse. The only thing between me and my bed was a frail man holding a serving tray. He offered me a small container (the size of a disposable ketchup paper cup) filled to the brim with a warm brown liquid. Not wanting to offend my new host, I hesitantly accepted the cup and drank the thimble size beverage. My mouth bursted with flavors, familiar yet foreign. Spicy but creamy. Smoky but sweet. So this was chai. Not the sugary, coma inducing beverage offered at coffee shops across America, but real, authentic, cardomom infused chai. I asked for another cup, closed my eyes, and marianted in the aroma of ginger, cinnamon, and pepper. My stomach was soothed with each comforting sip.

I returned to India a couple years later for my brother’s wedding to a girl from New Delhi. He inherited a large family. I inherited a recipe and a cupboard full of spices.

Masala

* 1 cup + 3 tbsp peppercorn

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp ginger

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cinnamon

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cardamom

2 tsp clove

2 tsp nutmeg

Chai

**1/2 cup condensed milk

1/2 cup water

1 to 2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. loose tea leaves. Darjeeling or Assam

1/4 tsp. chai masala

*Finely grind all ingredients for the masala

**The flavors that make spices taste delicious are aromatic compounds. Aromatic compounds are made of molecules that contain a structure known as a benzene ring, meaning they dissolve best in alcohols or fats. If you make this chai with skim milk, you won’t extract as many flavors from the spices as if you make it with a milk that has some fat.

1. Pour all the ingredients into a pot and let it come to a slow boil

2. Gently stir until it the liquid becomes a beautiful, rich color.

3. Strain loose leaf tea after fully cooked

4. Smell. Sip. Enjoy.