Cranberry Orange Cheesecake, Beet Ravioli, Sage Croquettes, and PETA’s Cow Mascot in Vermont!

This weekend I wanted to create my own cranberry orange cheesecake for the upcoming holidays. This is the time of year fresh organic cranberries are abundant in the co-ops and health food stores. The cranberries we buy in Vermont are native to Eastern Massachusetts where they grow in bogs. They are harvested in October so it’s a great time to be eating them. To learn more about them, CLICK HERE. Cranberries are also great in smoothies with oranges! I even make delicious green smoothies with cranberry and orange combinations! A super autumn breakfast!

My own Cranberry Orange Cheesecake

This recipe is part of my small but growing collection. These new recipes will be for sale online when we build our website. Half the proceeds will be going to the Farm Sanctuary to help rescued farm animals. I’ll have awesome detailed instructions and photos for each recipe as well as photos of the animals that will be benefitting from my project. Please keep checking back for our progress updates :-)

Joyce’s Notes: This turned out to be delicious! There is no cultured nut cheese but it’s still quite flavorful. I used cacao butter (raw unsweetened white chocolate) and a bit of coconut oil to get it firm. I was hoping for a more ‘white chocolate’ flavor but the tanginess of the oranges and cranberries were dominant over the cacao butter. That’s OK as it still tasted very rich and decadent. We also liked the crust a lot which was made with dried cranberries.

 

Almond Beet Ravioli with Boursin Macadamia cheese and a Moroccan Carrot Orange Sauce over kelp noodles.

This is also the time of year for an abundance of beets in Vermont. So you may see a few more beet ravioli recipes in the upcoming months on my blog. We just love them! :-)

I got this idea from a really great blog called “What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyways”. However I did change it up a bit. The almond flavorings and boursin macadamia nut cheese are my own ideas and I used kelp noodles instead of zucchini noodles. 

For the beets I used red and golden beets that were sliced on my mandoline and cut into squares. I marinated them in almond oil and a little sea salt for about half the day to soften.

I used fermented/cultured macadamia nut cheese as the ravioli filling. To see details on making fermented nut cheese you can view my St Patty’s day post. CLICK HERE. (it’s towards the end). I flavored about one cup of the macadamia nut cheese with:

• 3/4 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
• sea salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

The Moroccan carrot orange sauce was adapted from Gabriel Cousen’s book, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine.

Here’s my version:

• 2 cups of carrots chopped
• 2 tomatoes (medium sized)
• 1 medium orange
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of allspice
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of cumin (or more to taste)
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Blend in the Vitamix until smooth.

I topped the dish with almond slices mixed with almond oil and a little sea salt. Note: almond oil is not raw but I only used small amounts as seasoning for this dish.

Joyce’s Notes: This was a delicious dinner on Saturday night. Scott really loved the beet ravioli marinated in almond oil and the cheese filling together. He also really liked the almond slices on top. I wasn’t sure how this was all going to turn out. So I was delighted when my very fussy raw food Husband was calling this one a winner! :-)

The Moroccan carrot orange sauce was good but not a five-star recipe. With a little tweaking it could be excellent. I still think it went nicely with the dish as it was subtle and didn’t over power or clash with any of the other flavors. It was actually a nice compliment to the highly flavorful macadamia nut cheese. I used the leftover sauce on Sunday for a delicious kale salad.

Next time I might just leave out the kelp noodles since the dish didn’t need them. (they are neutral in flavor). I didn’t mind eating them mixed in the sauce but Scott gave me his ;-)

 

An experiment for the upcoming Holidays:

Savory Sage Croquettes. Recipe is Adapted by Gabriel Cousins and found in his book, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine.

Back in August, someone brought a very similar batch of sage croquettes to the local potluck and I thought they were extremely tasty! I could have eaten a whole bunch! I never did get the recipe but found out that something very similar was in one of my books! So I had to try it out for the upcoming holidays.

Here’s my adapted recipe based on Gabriel’s:

• 1 cup of almonds, soaked overnight
• 1 cup of brazil nuts, unsoaked
• 1/2 cup of pine nuts
• 1/8 cup of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of fresh sage, minced
• 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried sage
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of minced leek
• cracked pepper to taste

Process the almonds, brazils and pine nuts until very well incorporated in the food processor using the S blade. This should take a few minutes to get it homogenized. Then add the rest of the ingredients and process until well incorporated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joyce’s Notes: I thought these were soooo tasty and flavorful! Scott wasn’t thrilled with them but thought they were OK. I thought they tasted just like traditional stuffing with the leeks, sage and oregano. And I love stuffing!!

Gabriel’s original recipe called for olive oil which I did use. However they did turn out to be a little too oily. Scott didn’t like that aspect but I was fine with it. I’m going to make these again without the oil as the ground pine nuts will still release some oil keeping them moist. I might also roll them in almond flour next time.

Give these a try if you love authentic holiday stuffing (or dressing as they call it overseas in some countries). Make it first before you bring it to a Thanksgiving dinner to make sure it’s not too oily for you. I think it’s always best to ‘test run’ raw vegan recipes before bringing them to important family dinners :-)

Here’s a photo of the croquettes before going into the dehydrator. This recipe should have made 12 but I kept eating bites right from the food processor as it was soooo good :-)

 

PETA’s “Dairy Dump” in Burlington, Vermont this past Friday!

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) members were on the corner of Church and Main Street to enlighten people about the inhumane treatment of cows on dairy farms.

A new PETA undercover investigation inside a Land O'Lakes supplier facility in Pennsylvania has revealed routine neglect and cruelty to cows who are milked for the company's products. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE DETAILS. This is very sad but unfortunately it’s a very grim reality for almost all dairy cows on factory farms.

The lovely woman above is Virginia Fort who is a Campaign Coordinator for PETA. It was a pleasure meeting and talking with her this past Friday. She had a small video screen attached to her which was showing footage of the Land O’Lakes undercover investigation which you can see on the link I enclosed above.

I’m so thankful for PETA and all that they do for animals. Keep up the great work!

Thank you Virginia for coming to Burlington!

 

And here are a few late October Vermont scenes. The leaves are almost off the trees but there are still a few colors left. I love the clouds and lighting this time of year in New England. Winter is on its way!

The above shots are views of Richmond, Vermont  

The above is Camel’s Hump taken off of Libby’s Lookout this weekend. Sunday was a gorgeous day to be outside in the woods!

Well that’s all for now! Have a happy and healthy week and do come back again!

Chocolate Pecan Pie And A Couple Curried Dishes with Autumn Vegetables

A few weeks ago Jennifer Cornbleet’s publisher sent me a reviewer’s copy of her new book, Raw For Dessert.  She had seen my blog and wrote me an email. How very cool!

This is a lovely new dessert book with all kinds of delicious looking treats. Whether you are just starting out on the raw journey or you are an experienced raw pastry chef, this book has something for everyone. Raw desserts are my favorite part of living a raw vegan lifestyle! So I am delighted to have a copy of this raw dessert recipe book filled with cakes, pies, ice creams, cookies and other luscious sweets. Plus I like how most of her ice cream recipes don’t use any young Thai coconuts (which have been scarce lately or poor quality). Even though it’s not ice cream weather, we have our eye on her Pistachio Ice Cream recipe! Scott has also requested her raspberry squares :-)

My first dessert from Jennifer’s new book was the Chocolate Pecan Pie which is perfect for the cooler fall weather and also for the upcoming holidays.

Chocolate Pecan Pie!

Jennifer’s publisher gave me permission to post a recipe from her new book. Please do check out her webpage and the book details by CLICKING HERE.

This recipe includes a few components so I’m going to list them in the order that I made them:

1 Cup of Date Paste (here’s what I used since I cut the recipe almost in half)

• 20 pitted medjool dates
• 1 1/2 cups of water (and a couple teaspoons extra)

Soak dates in the water for 20 minutes, massaging them with your hands for a minute. Drain dates but reserve the soaking water.

Place dates in food processor along with a bit over 1/4 cup of soak water and blend until smooth.

Almond Pecan Crust

• 3/4 cup of unsoaked almonds
• 3/4 cup of unsoaked pecans (recipe calls for 1/2 cup)
• 8 pitted medjool dates
• 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Place almonds and sea salt in the food processor and process until coarsely ground. Add the pecans and process until both nuts are finely ground. Add the dates and process until mixture begins to stick together. Don’t overprocess. Form a pie crust in a 9 inch pie plate or tart pan. I used a pie plate.

3/4 cup of Chocolate Ganache

• 3/4 cup of dark agave syrup or maple syrup (I used mostly dark agave with a bit of maple syrup)
• 3/4 cup of cacao powder
• 1/3 cup of virgin coconut oil, melted (in dehydrator)
• 1/8 teaspoon plus pinch of sea salt

Blend everything in the Vitamix until smooth. Add most of it on top of the crust. Scatter 3/4 cups of pecans on top of the ganache. Press down with your hand. Put in the fridge while making the filling.

Filling

• 3/4 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of agar flakes
• 1 cup of date paste from above
• 1 tablespoon of dark agave or maple syrup (I used maple syrup since I live in Vermont)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Place the water and agar flakes in a small saucepan on the stove and let soak for 5-10 minutes. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Place the date paste, maple syrup or agave, vanilla extract, and sea salt in the food processor and process until smooth. Add the agar mixture and process until blended.

Spread the date mixture evenly over the ganache and pecans with an offset spatula. Scatter the remaining 1/2 to 1 cup of pecans on top, pressing them down slightly. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joyce’s Notes: Wow this is a very rich and decadent dessert! Both my husband Scott and I love this one! It’s sinfully good with the chocolate ganache layer! Thank you Jennifer for this clever recipe.

The crust works well as I added a bit more pecans. I always change up crust recipes to suit our preferences.

The chocolate ganache is so simple yet amazing! Scott loved this part the most. We were both scraping every last drop out of the Vitamix. It was that good! You could do a lot with this recipe for other desserts. Chocolate lovers must try this!

The date paste was really nice and I thought the filling mixture was very good with the date paste and maple syrup. This was my first time using agar flakes. I used Eden brand Agar Agar Sea Vegetable Flakes. This is a vegetable gelatin made with a variety of sea vegetables with thickening properties. I found these at City Market Co-op.

The filling did get a bit thicker after being in the fridge but not as firm as using Irish moss. The consistency was OK for this particular dessert. I’d like to experiment more using Agar flakes in the future since it’s a more neutral taste than Irish moss. I’m not worried about Agar being cooked since you use a very small amount. Plus Irish moss gets very hot when blending in the Vitamix so even Irish moss isn’t truly raw in desserts.

Overall I highly recommend Jennifer’s new book and trying this super naughty-tasting dessert. It has a few steps but the end result is worth the effort. In fact I’m about to take a break and cut myself a small piece as it’s not going to last long! ;-)

For people that are looking for a more traditional raw vegan pecan pie recipe without the chocolate, I highly recommend trying Alissa Cohen’s recipe in her book, Living on Live Food. I brought that one to a Thanksgiving dinner a couple years ago and it was a huge hit!

 

Autumn Curried Carrot Salad. Recipe was found on goneraw.com. CLICK HERE to see original recipe.

This past Friday, our favorite neighbors, Stu and Renée left some carrots, purple cabbage, and other veggies in a basket for us to enjoy. Thanks so much you two! This was just perfect because I had my eye on the this curried carrot salad recently posted on goneraw.com that also called for purple cabbage. 

Here is  the recipe with my own modifications:

Ingredients:

Salad base:

• 5 to 6 cups of shredded and grated carrots using the food processor
• 1/2 of a small head of purple cabbage, chopped in the food processor
• 1/2 cup of unsoaked sunflower seeds
• 1/2 heaping cup of raisins, soaked for 20 minutes
• 1/2 cup of dried shredded coconut
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of minced red onion
• big handful of cilantro or more to taste, minced

Combine and mix in a nice big bowl

Dressing

• 1/2 cup plus a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 – 2 small/medium Macintosh apples (I used one and 2/3 of a second apple)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger (I used a bit under 1 tablespoon)
• 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of garam masala (start off with 1/2 tsp)
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• sea salt to taste
• enough water for the mixture to turn over in Vitamix
• dash of cinnamon

Blend everything in the Vitamix until smooth and creamy. Add more water if necessary.  Mix with salad base.

Add a few more cilantro leaves when eating. This is my personal preference as I love cilantro.

(Original dressing recipe calls for juice of one lemon which I forgot to add)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joyce’s Notes: This is a lovely salad that both my husband and I enjoyed very much. My result was not a ‘taste explosion’ as expressed on goneraw.com. But it was still very good and satisfying. I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars. Perhaps next time I would make sure I didn’t forget the lemon juice in the dressing. Also I might use a bit fewer carrots. Overall it was still delicious and Scott was happy to take some leftovers to work today as a nice lunch.

 

A Work in Progress and a fun experiment:

Curry Butternut Squash Cream Sauce over Ravioli stuffed with Cashew Cheese with Cranberries.

This was my own experiment this weekend. The recipe needs to be tweaked a bit, but it has a lot of potential. I thought I’d share the photos anyway and talk a little about it.

I bought a butternut squash for the weekend to experiment with softening it up up in the dehydrator. I peeled and cut it up into small cubes. I then soaked it overnight in the fridge in cold salted water. The next day I coated the squash in olive oil and dehydrated the cubes all day on telefex sheets. They got soft enough to use but not quite as soft as baked squash. I was still very pleased with the results (and I can be fussy too). So I might try Susan Power’s

Savory Squash Crepes With Sage “Cream” Sauce

recipe on Rawmazing. CLICK HERE to check it out. Looks lovely with the dehydrated squash!!

Back to my experiment :-) I made a cream sauce with soaked cashews, pine nuts, the soft dehydrated squash, olive oil and a bunch of other ingredients for flavoring including curry powder.

The filling was a fermented cashew cheese with lemon zest, and other flavorings. I did use a tad too much lemon zest so next time I need to be mindful of how strong the zest can be. Live and learn!

The wrappers were made of turnips that I soaked in grape seed oil which is a very nice neutral oil, easily found at most co-ops and health food stores. I soaked some dried cranberries for garnish which made the dish look pretty.

Once I get this recipe or a ‘cousin’ of this dish perfected I’ll share more details. Hopefully this will be a future recipe I can sell on my ‘special project’ which will benefit farm animals ;-)

So I had a fun time in the kitchen as usual this past weekend. But we did manage to get outside for some lovely autumn running and exploring. (I’m feeling very strong and in good shape after our half marathon a few weekends ago)

Here are a couple photos we took out in the Waitsfield, Vermont area this past weekend:

 

Oh I just have to include this one with Murphy:

He loves to be a part of everything! :-)

Well, it’s a perfect day with clear blue skies! It’s almost a crime to be inside now. So I’m off for a run!

Cheers and have a lovely week! Sending warm wishes from Vermont. xo

Pumpkin Cheesecake, A Potluck and lots of Fall Foliage!

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake! Recipe is adapted from Matthew Kenney. You can find a very similar cheesecake recipe in his book, Everyday Raw. I highly recommend this book if you don’t already have it. It’s a good one we like to use!

Joyce’s Notes: This is probably one of my favorite desserts of all time (raw and traditional!) Matthew Kenney is a genius for coming up with this pumpkin cheesecake filling! Scott and I love this one so much. Matthew’s recipe was originally part of a Thanksgiving E-book collection of raw recipes from 2007. There were a bunch of raw chefs who contributed to the E-book. So I was lucky enough to be making Matthew’s pumpkin cheesecake for the past two Thanksgivings and ‘wowing’ friends and family. But now the recipe is available in his book! The quantities are smaller since it’s for a tart pan. He does use maple syrup in the book. I use all agave and it turns out amazing. Oh! his recipe in the book calls for fresh thyme. If you’re super adventurous and live on the edge, go for it. I leave it out :-)

What makes this pumpkin cheesecake so clever is that it doesn’t have any pumpkin or fermented nut cheese in the recipe. Matthew uses carrot juice, nutmeg and cinnamon to create a very authentic pumpkin pie taste and texture. Real pumpkin and squash are a bit grainy uncooked, but this cake is super smooth from the carrot juice. This is why raw food can be so much fun!

I made a 7 inch and an 8 inch cheesecake and brought one to the potluck last night. Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe.  It was a huge hit! And you can be sure we’ll be taking this down to a family gathering in November! Seriously, I think this is one of the best raw dessert recipes of all time! Get the book if you don’t already have it: Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney (I don’t make a commission. I just think it’s a great book with achievable recipes for all raw foodies or raw-curious folks!)

A quick shot of Preston Pond across the street from our house. This is part of 400 acres of conservation land. A true gem!

A beaver pond up the trail from Preston pond on the way to Libby’s Lookout.

 

A perfect Autumn Salad:

 

Kale and Tahini Salad. Recipe by Russell James and found in his E-book, No Dehydrator Needed.

Russell released this E-book last week along with a Chocolate E-book which I also purchased as well. Both have all kinds of delicious looking recipes that I look forward to trying.

Joyce’s Notes: This is a lovely rich and filling kale salad. I love kale salads and make them on a regular basis during the weekdays. Fresh local kale is very plentiful right now so it was a perfect time to enjoy this. It consists of fresh kale, baby tomatoes, raw tahini (I use Artisana brand available at Healthy Living Market), lemon juice, sea salt, olive oil, sprouted buckwheat, agave syrup and cayenne.

I love sprouted buckwheat in salads and this was just great! It adds a crunchy texture plus a wealth of easily digestible protein. Russell adds the option of also using hemp protein powder but I decided to omit it this time. I love hemp protein powder but wasn’t sure about it in this salad. If I was doing a long running event or workout the next day I just might give the hemp protein powder a go in this recipe.

 

Taken from Libby’s Lookout which is a beautiful short hike that starts across the street from our house in the conservation land. Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks are in the background (waving back at Angela!)

Burlington Alive Potluck this past Sunday!

Last night we had a lovely time at the Burlington Alive Potluck at Geniel and Lynn Fife’s house. Thank you Geniel, Lynn, Joshua and Carrie Anne for making this all happen! There were a several people who were not able to make it this month but I hope to see them at the next one :-)  Here are a few photos:

 

 

 

Now for some more fall foliage shots taken in beautiful Vermont!

Taken from our front door before a storm.

 

 

 

 

Today was a gorgeous day so I hiked up Camel’s Hump via the Burrows Trail starting in Huntington, VT which is about 15 miles from our house.  Here are some shots I took today:

Camels Hump Road

Snow and frost on the west side of the summit. The trail became very icy and treacherous at the top (last .3 mile of the hike)

 

Mt Mansfield is in the background.

A nice guy took my photo. It was cold on the summit but gorgeous!

Lake Champlain and the NY Adirondacks are in the background (waving to Angela!)

And lastly, our pretty mountain road

Hope everyone visiting Vermont enjoyed the leaves! Stop back soon!