Aphrodite’s Organic Café and Pie Shop

It's great having friends that appreciate good food as much as we do. Meeting one of them for lunch, we decided to hit one of Kitsilano's shining examples of sustainable eating, Aphrodite’s Organic Café and Pie Shop.

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Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

One of our favourite cookbooks is Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten, and although every recipe in it we've tried has been wonderful, our favourite is Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic.

To paraphrase Ina, it may seem that three heads of garlic is a lot, but they do mellow out a lot during the cooking process.

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Edible Flours

A year ago, we began our blog with a series of posts on French bakeries in Vancouver. It's only fitting that our anniversary post is about a bakery. Edible Flours, a 100% vegan bakery, opened its doors only a few days ago in Kitsilano. We first heard of the opening of their retail location a few weeks ago, but at the time, the true significance of the event did not register.

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Pretzels

Who hasn't spent a few lovely hours in O'Hare International Airport, outside Chicago, "Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation," as immortalized by the great Carl Sandburg? Even after countless connections through this very busy airport, including an unscheduled Christmas Eve snowed-in stayover, we can still unearth hidden treasures.

Auntie Anne's Pretzels beckoned to us from across the hectic terminal. After buying our what-were-we-thinking-only one pretzel, we arrived home barely satiated, yearning for more....

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Peppermint Chocolate Bark

Simple and special, this chocolate bark with crushed candy canes on top will make you spontaneously sing Christmas carols. At least it did for me....

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Gingerbread Cookies

Somehow, I have it in my head that anything that has molasses as an ingredient is automatically healthy. Regretfully, I don't think that these gingerbread cookies qualify, but they've got to better than regular sugar cookies, no?

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Black Bean Salad

Way back in 1997, when we had a subscription to Bon Appétit, we found a great recipe for a Caribbean Black Bean and Rice Salad by the unfailing duo, Jinx and Jefferson Morgan. That was a great recipe, and we enjoyed making it for years.

Fast forward to 2005. We were in Stong's when we saw a black bean salad that looked appetizing. We took it home and loved it so much, we knew we had to reverse engineer the recipe from the ingredient list.

As much as we liked the black bean and rice salad, we thought it would be healthier to replace the white rice with brown rice, or leave it out altogether.

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Vegan Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

This time of year, it seems that pumpkins are inescapable, from pumpkin pies to jack o' lanterns. We have no problems jumping on the bandwagon, at least when it comes to pumpkins, since we're happy to bake with pumpkins throughout the year.

When I saw these on Camilla Salsbury's Enlightened Cooking blog, I knew I had to make them.

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Garlic Croutons

We like these croutons because they are pretty easy to make, and they are an easy sell to our kids.

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Earth Balance Buttery Flavour Spread

This vegan trans-fat-free margarine from Earth Balance has become a household staple for us. We just love the taste of it. We use it everywhere you might otherwise use butter or regular margarine. It's great on bread or toast, and we use it extensively in baking. We would go through the one-pound tubs pretty quickly, and just imagine how excited we were when we first saw the three-pound tub in the grocery store. Earth Balance even makes a more convenient and more expensive stick form.

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NYC Black and White Cookies

Thank goodness for vegans! Not only are they animal friendly, keeping their bodies healthy and saving the planet, but they are also creating superb cookie recipes for our egg-and-dairy-allergic kids.

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Doughnuts: Vegan no less!

I am always on the hunt for good egg- and dairy-free baking recipes for my children, who have food allergies.  As I stood in my local library, flipping through The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book: Great Dairy, Egg, and Nut Free Treats for the Whole Family by Kelly Rudnicki, I started to excited. I rushed home with the book, ready to try one of the many appealing recipes.

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Healthy Hostess Cupcakes from BabyCakes

On a recent trip to New York City, a visit to the famous BabyCakes bakery was on the itinerary, but we just ran out of time. Their first cookbook is BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery. Erin McKenna has figured out how to bake, and bake fabulously, without our most common baking building blocks. Her positive attitude is a relief and an inspiration to those of us working through our own food restrictions.

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Allergy- and Kid-Friendly Meatballs

worcestershire sauce, black pepper, oat bran,

ground sage, thyme, garlic powder

Many parents find it difficult to get their kids to eat enough vegetables. Since taste buds of children are more sensitive than those of adults, children find many common vegetables like broccoli and spinach too bitter. A common strategy is to hide the vegetables so that only a subtle taste comes through and blends with other foods.

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