COOKING WITH A CAKE PAN + A (SORTA) RECIPE

First off I would like to begin with saying I really enjoy cheese, cheese is probably the only real obstacle preventing me from going vegan because even though \I have tried veganism I always succumb to temptation when presented with a cheese plate. Secondly I am also supposed to be cutting down on my cheese intake, something that I find damn near impossible in this wonderful country full of inexpensive, delicious cheesy options because my abnormally high dairy intake may be the cause of several of my body and health related troubles. Now that being said I ignored my latter inclination if favour of the first when cooking dinner last night.

I adapted this veggie baked macaroni recipe from Love & Lemons and I just had a few comments to make on the process. I was quite excited about this recipe because the original recipe calls for a combination of all my favourite things, asparagus, mozzarella cheese, and a cashew based cream but then I remembered that while these ingredients may seem run of the mill to me, I am living in another country now where food availability is also very different. For one, it took me two day and four grocery stores to track down cashews, locating them only (and for a steeper price) at a health food store. Second I subbed broccoli for the asparagus because here asparagus (or spargel) is white usually and twice the size, the green type that I more familiar with is far less common (and more expensive) plus spargel season ended about a month ago. My third challenge with this recipe was that I realized we don't own a casserole dish and the other pan we owned were not deep enough for this dish. However H pointed out that we did have a cake pan and thus that problem was solved. I would like to throw in a word of caution, when removing said cake pan from the over to be extra gentle with handling because the base is not super sturdy and cook possibly end up with piping hot cheese and pasta everywhere...I just barely avoided this disaster.

And just in case anyone is wondering, here was my adaptation of the recipe (measurements are whatever...I just threw it all together)

Cashew cream

Fusilli pasta

Broccoli (chopped)

Pea (blanched quickly)

Mozzarella balls (halved as well)

Basil and Sage (chopped)

Gouda (grated on top)

Paniermehl (closest thing I could find to breadcrumbs)

Olive oil

Red pepper flakes

Toss all together until evenly coated and distribute evenly in your cake pan, bake at 175 degrees for 15-ish minutes. Eat with curry ketchup (because I am pretty sure H is fifty percent ketchup...at least)


D.

CHAI CONCENTRATE

I make chai concentrate on the regular, though not as much recently. It is probably my favourite hot and cold drink, and combination of spices is just heavenly. Depending on how I feel I tweak the amount of cardamom, ginger or cinnamon and always add a generous amount of vanilla. So here's goes...

(also my sorta-but-not-really recipe is included below)

First I decide what I'm putting into it today, generally it is some sort of combination of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, star anise, vanilla, nutmeg, orange peel (or zest), black peppercorn and sometimes if I feel like it, allspice (though I didn't use it today). 

Nutmeg is the only spice I use in ground form, mostly because I don't have any whole ones but even if I did I would have to grate it anyways so this is just easier.

I ended up using some ground cinnamon since I only had 3 cinnamon sticks left, so I just added about 1/4 of a teaspoon. I don't have anything to say about the star anise other than I love just looking at it, it's pretty.

I buy this honey from a little family owned bulk store near my house, it's locally sourced which I like, unpasteurized and delicious. I've gone through 3 containers of this stuff in the last 3 months. As a side note, I also use it as an ingredient in my weekly face-mask and my skin feels super soft afterwards.

Recipe:

8 cups of water

8 black tea bags

3 cinnamon sticks + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

some cardamom seeds

6-ish whole cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

peel of one orange

grated chunk of ginger

3 star anise

1/2 vanilla bean pod + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey

Put the water on to boil

Once i'ts boiling add everything except the vanilla extract and the honey and let it steep for however long you feel like (if you are like me then around 20-30 minutes because you are too distracted playing with the baby, otherwise 15 minutes would probably do).

Now that it has steeped, stir in the honey and vanilla extract and begin to strain the concentrate into whatever container it is going to be kept in.

Last step isn't necessary but you're probably going to drink it right away, hot or cold. So drink away.

To serve pour a 1:1 ratio of concentrate and whatever milk (be it cow's or almond or whatever) and either heat it up or drop a couple ice cubes into it
I wouldn't keep this for much longer than a week in the fridge, but lets be real it won't last that long in there anyways.