Archives

DIY booch: how to brew your own kombucha at home

kombucha home brew 8

Hey everyone! This is my first post of an ongoing DIY series I’m doing. I’m kickin’ it off with an easy DIY on home brewing kombucha since it is one of my favorite hobbies as of late.

If you follow me on twitter, you may know that I’m a giant kombucha fanatic. I always seem to have a bottle nearby, and oftentimes, I tweet about it.

But, if you’ve ever purchased the stuff pre-bottled at your favorite health food/convenience store, then you’ll also know that drinking a daily 1 or 2 kombuchas can quickly become an expensive habit. My dear husband used to gripe about how my brew of choice, at around $5.00 per bottle, cost significantly more than his. He was right; it was getting rather rediculous.

Continue reading →

Lemon Olive Oil Cookies

Friends, today I set out to share a delicious new cashew cream truffle recipe with you, while trying to juggle a multitude of other tasks. And I failed. Miserably. :\ I won’t go into details, but let’s just say my kitchen was definitely a pathetic sight to see.

But! Then I remembered I had this bag of lemons kickin’ around, and the fresh smell of lemon always pulls me out of a funk. So I cheered myself up by baking a batch of these citrusy morsels. And man, am I ever glad I screwed up those truffles; these cookies are really good.

Soft, tangy, and similar to a snickerdoodle in texture, these cookies are a nice treat on a warm summer day — especially alongside a refreshing scoop of lemon sorbet. If you don’t like the flavor of olive oil and would prefer a milder cookie, feel free to sub it out with melted margarine or coconut oil.

Continue reading →

Simple Rolled Sugar Cookies

I adore Spring, and I am always so excited when the official “first day of Spring” comes around, especially after a gruelingly cold winter. Yet, I never feel like I can fully appreciate the season during the first few weeks as it’s usually still quite cold in my part of the world.

But near the beginning of May, everything is budding and blooming and full of life. It’s a wonderful time of year! This warm spring weather puts me in the bestest of moods, even if it’s raining. And, when I’m in a good mood, I like to make cookies. And then I like to cover them in pastel colors!

We munched on these sugar cookies this past weekend– I think they helped put a little “spring” in everyone’s step!

So, even though it’s slightly belated….

Happy Spring, dear readers!

Continue reading →

Chocolate Twirly Doodle Cookies (GF)

chocolate gluten free vegan cookies

The name says it all.

Okay, maybe not.  But they are chocolatey, and twirly… and “doodle” just sounded nice with the rest.  And, seriously, what kind of cookie with a “doodle” at the end doesn’t taste good?

These cookies are my first experiment using sorghum flour, and I must say, I am pretty impressed.  It seemed to work a lot like buckwheat, but was a touch lighter in color and in taste.

With this new promising flour, I decided to try my hand at some rolled cookies.  And, when it worked out almost effortlessly, I decided to roll them again… with a little chocolate sugar inside.

The results were even better than I expected, with a taste, texture and (a word that has been abuzz lately, and I [childishly] find pretty funny) “mouthfeel” like typical AP flour cookies.

They are soft and flavorful with a hint of almond flavor, and they definitely give me the confidence to try out new and exciting ways to manipulate GF dough.

For all of you readers who still like your baked goods glutinous, I would assume you could sub out AP or whole wheat flour where I used the different flours/xanthan combo.  I say this because I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe as a starting point.  You may need to add a smidgen more flour to make it stiff and rollable… but I think it should work out okay. :)

Continue reading →