I love galettes. They’re such a great way to practice making dough. If you’re looking for a sweet galette recipe, you can find a Peach & Fig galette recipe here. I love savory galettes because this tomato galette evokes the flavor of pizza, so it’s a pizza galette.
The flaky pastry and the juicy, cheesy tomato mixture is just delicious. If you’re looking to work on your pastry skills, galettes give you a free rein because it doesn’t have to fit in a specific pan. All you need is a flat surface and the will to do it.
No-fuss, simple vegan pancakes. It’s the Sunday morning of a long weekend and to be honest, having no structure makes me a little depressed. So what do you do on a Sunday morning? You make vegan pancakes.
Since March my eating habits have changed drastically. Blame it on the pseudo-Texan lockdown or the world being upside down, but I now tend to get hungry after 11 am. Brunch territory is a place I love so I’m always trying to keep interesting, even if I’m making a loved staple such as Sweet Potato Hash.
I never really cared for buffalo sauce until I moved back to the US. Enter these buffalo cauliflower bites.
I’ve always liked wings and I love tangy, tart, acidic flavors. I add lime to my lime Topo Chico or my grapefruit lacroix. I used to eat limes as a kid as they are. So when I was oddly craving buffalo anything I just surrendered to the craving and made it.
Cooking and baking connect all of the senses, you just have to notice how it happens. They offer us an opportunity for us to coach the mind to be present. If you learn how to cook mindfully, cooking can be a tool of mindful meditation.
I’ve practiced mindful meditation consistently for the better part of 5 years. I’ve also done several mediation immersions. One, a 1-week meditation immersion guided by Madonna McManus, who holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and Experimental Therapeutics and several other meditation immersions through apps like Waking Up, HeadSpace, and Calm, in addition to daily asanas.
A little background on mindful meditation
According to Wikipedia, mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment which one develops through the practice of meditation.
Some of the benefits of mindful meditation
Mindful meditation is proven to improve focus, reduce stress and irritability, and creates neuroplasticity (the creation of neuropathways in the brain).
For me, the biggest benefit of mindful meditation is the creation of Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to “rewire” or “reorganize” itself by forming new neural connections. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment. If you’re interested in research linking mindful meditation to neuroplasticity, hereare somelinks.
Activities that involve using your hands help with reducing anxiety.
How I use cooking & baking as a mindful meditation tool
I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time in the Basque Country. However, the real fortune would be to go to La Viña and try the burnt Basque cheesecake. Maybe I have, my time in Donostiarra is quite the blur as I was between zuritosand chupitos the whole time. As of now, the only option I have is to try to recreate it.
I don’t make cakes this rich often. So this past May during quarantine when my husband Marc asked me to make him this cake for his birthday, how could I say no?
The Burnt Basque Cheesecake in all its glory. Good thing the char is what’s attractive. (more…)
For almost a year now, I’ve been platonically in love with Sohla El-Waylly. Especially Sohla’s sticky buns recipe.
There is something about the fearlessness in her approach to cooking that inspires me to be my best self. She is always encouraging the viewers of the youtube videos she’s in to “not let the dough boss you around” and her attitude towards tempering chocolate is something to admire, “it’s “nothing to fear!”
A few months ago I decided to make dosas, heavily inspired by her thorough guide on serious eats and my interest in fermentation. So I made dosas. I had a little accident (my dosa batch exploded) so I dared ask Sohla via DMs. Long story short, she gave me some pointers and I ended up giving myself food poisoning. This was totally my fault…I learned the hard way that recipes are not suggestions, especially when it comes to fermenting legumes.
I suffer from that syndrome Adam Driver has. The one where he rather walk out of an interview with Terry Gross because she played one of his movie clips. We’re literally the same. You know sans the millions and the devastatingly handsome jawline. I empathize with the feeling that comes from of reading or hearing my own creative work, which is errr just yikes. Whenever I do I feel like looking back opens a huge can of worms so I try to never read anything after I post it.
These days, with everything going on in the world I’ve been cooking and baking much more than I normally do. Cookies, a big pasta dish, focaccia… To the point I’ve decided I’m going to start a curbside pickup service for my neighbors. Recipe below.
