Vegan Gluten-Free Apple Pear Crisp...

Apparently, it is possible to eat dessert even if you are a vegan (and you don't have to spend a fortune on a thousand weird ingredients like I imagined I would).

A few of our good friends have decided to go vegan. Why, I have no idea (other than the obvious heath reasons and animal rights reasons that Daniel and I choose to avoid thinking about). But needless to say, I love my friends and love baking & cooking for a crowd. So... vegan gluten free dessert it is.

On Tuesday we had a dinner party with eight of our greatest Seattle friends, and (most) all food there was vegan. Being the nice girl that I am, I asked the host what I could bring... Dessert it was (I was so hoping to be given wine or salad duty).

I have a million apples in my fridge, so I thought it'd be a good start because no one avoids apples that I know of. It was much easier and MUCH more delicious than I was imagining (how can anything without butter taste good?).

Off to the Ballard Market I went to purchase gluten free flour and pears, other than that I had all the ingredients (with major substitutions) & was quite proud of myself because ten minutes later we were out the door walking to our friend's apartment.

Recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Pecan Apple Pear Crisp (my way below):

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Grease (NOT with butter, friends) any kind oven-proof pan (I use a giant white casserole dish with a lid for proper transporting on our 10 block walk)

Mix together 4 sliced tart apples (good 'ol granny smith worked great) and 4 sliced pears with 1 TB flour (I used Bob's Red Mill GF sorghum flour), 1 TB sugar and 1 TB of cinnamon. Then proceed to dump all contents into pretty oven safe dish.

Next, I ground up a ton of pecans in my Cuisinart (if I would have had more time I would have toasted them, so I highly recommend that) to end up equaling 1 1/2 cup ground nuts (hazelnuts would also be wonderful).

In a bowl mix together:

1/2 cup flour (same GF flour used here)
1/2 cup sucant or raw sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 ts. baking powder

1/2 ts. sea salt

1 TB ground cinnamon

1 ts. ground nutmeg

1 ts. ground cloves

1 ts. pure vanilla

1 TB water (recipe called for non-dairy milk, but I didn't want to buy it)

2 1/2 TB canola oil (recipe called for palm oil)

Mix with fork until it looks moist and crumbly, then pour evenly over top of apple/pear mixture

Bake for about 45 minutes & serve hot with fake ice cream (I serve some coconut ice cream alternative which was actually pretty decent, and Hagan-Daaz Vanilla for the non-vegs).

Harvest Party

The great thing about our new condo is the luxury of reserving the swanky "community lounge", which I promptly reserved for a Harvest Party (in honor of the hubby's birthday next week) within days of moving in.

I am so excited, and have been researching what to serve for the past few days. Any ideas friends? While in Friday Harbor we picked up some Peppered Pumpkin jelly (I believe that's what it was called), so I'm dreaming of serving it with some sort of cheese on a crostini or something.

In keeping with tradition, I'll serve Martha's Spiked Apple Pie Cider again, but I'm wondering if I could do a Fall-ish sangria too? With pear, apple etc? I can't seem to find a good recipe, but I'm sure Daniel won't mind taste testing for me.

We're planning for at least 30 people & I'd love to try some new appetizer recipes for the party. One can only do so many cheese & cracker patters... Any ideas? We have quite a few vegans, vegeterians and gluten-free quests coming as well & I'd like them to be able to partake in at least some of it!

Home

Last night, Daniel and I sat in our half-way unpacked living room drinking wine & envisioning our new space. We kept moving furniture around, daydreaming & scheming... so fun.

What we didn't plan on doing was moving the office space to our bedroom, which we're almost entirely against having anything non Master Bedroom-y in our room. But the goal is to have comfortable couch seating for more than just us, so into the corner nook of the bedroom it goes. So, my idea is to create some sort of canopy around our bed to block our view of the desk (and change up the feel of the room). The original plan was to buy three iron (iron-ish looking) curtain rods & drill them into the ceiling on three sides of the bed (or maybe only two sides) & hang flowy white sheer drapes from them. But... I may change my mind. I'm going for cool, romantic, whimsical (aren't I always?). Any ideas friends?Our bedroom before (we also ditched the plum color):

Flourless Chocolate Cake

It's about time I post the dessert I make at least twice a month... the incredible Flourless Chocolate Cake. Three of my closest Seattle girlfriends have gluten allergies, and I feel so bad for them when it comes to dessert, because they NEVER get to partake... so, since last fall it's been my mission to find delicious desserts that a) do not contain wheat b) don't have too many of those weird wheat substitutes that cost my entire monthly food budget, and c) that no one would know it was any different than any other dessert. I love this cake, from start to finish it takes less than an hour & looks like you spent way more time than that, which is always nice.

Changes I make:
-I never use a double-broiler for this recipe, I just microwave the chocolate & butter 30 sec. at a time and keep stirring until melted. Works perfectly, and this is what Ina Garten does, do I don't feel too bad about it! Make sure to use a glass or ceramic bowl, not metal, that way you can just wisk in the other ingredients & only get one bowl dirty.

-This recipe is a great base for adding anything to it. Sometime I add a little vanilla, chopped toasted nuts would be great, almond extract is good. Next up: adding hazelnut liqour & making hazelnut whip cream to top it, sounds festive right? Most used combination: sliced fresh strawberries & homemade whip cream.

- I most always top it with a dusting of powder sugar rather than the cocco powder. I found that cocco powder dissovled into the cake before we even ate it, and it wasn't as even or pretty as I wanted. I put a handful of powder sugar into a fine mesh strainer (I use my pasta one) & dust away... Takes about 3 seconds, and looks great.

The recipe originally came from Gorumet magazine (one of my favorites), and I found it on Epicurious.com (an incredible site). Bon Appetit!

I love Seattle fall

Today was perfect weather.

On my lunch break I sat outside in my very favorite dress in the gorgeous sunshine. Slightly blustery, but very warm, as a sign of my very favorite time of the year: Autumn! With so many changes happening on our lives right now, this wonderfully transitional season makes me quite happy. Planning our Harvest Party, Daniel's birthday, day dreaming of the birthday presents I want (mustard yellow Hobo bag, if it exists), wearing tights & boots & scarves and most importantly all things pumpkin. 

I am hopeful. 

This weekend is also going to be perfect, which I must say, I've quite needed due to recent happenings. Date night tonight with Daniel, which I have no idea what he's planned & can't wait until he gets home to find out. Tomorrow is making jam with Charlotte, Corrine & Julia, then girls night... and then, Sunday morning brunch with my girls from college who I haven't seen in well over a month, and finally back to our church home after two weeks of being away. Cannot wait! 

moving etc.

Yesterday, Daniel and I officially decided to move. We love the city so much that we're moving a mere 5 blocks away, to the beautiful Ballard Place Condos. Regardless of the distance of the move, we are very excited & I've already taken pictures to sell on Craigs of all the things we don't plan on taking with us, and gone through my closet twice (still need to walk over to Crossroads with bag upon bags of hopeful money makers) & have become more organized than I have been all year this past week.



When describing the condo to someone they mentioned that it sounds like a step sideways for us, rather than forward. Yes, we are only adding 100 square feet, but it's the new adventure of space planning (drawing our space on CAD tonight) and painting and re-organizing and decorating that makes this all worth it (that, and the stainless steel kitchen aid appliances in my new kitchen).



Now I'm off to decide paint colors & am dying to get away from our bright avocado living room, how can I convince Daniel to go for magenta next?

a deep love for wallpaper

I always have loved wallpaper, especially the citron/emerald/gold flocked floral print that my Grandparents had. I loved feeling the texture of it as a little girl and marveled at how glamorous gold walls seemed. I still have a deep passion for wallpaper, and was reminded of how much I love it while in one of my favorite little card shops in Wallingford. Here are some that have caught my eye lately, and that I've used in recent projects as well.

Brocade Home supplied many college projects, lovely pieces:

A local Seattle shop, that is absolutely amazing & supplied the wallpaper for Paper Delights:

Another favorite line from designer Maya Romanoff mainly all natural, sustainable materials:

P.S. I'm working on blogging more, and with more of a purpose... sharing things that inspire me daily, projects I'm working on & general design ideas. I love to hear of any latest restaurants, boutiques or design concepts!