1 cup strawberries or blueberries (or try some other berries or fruit)
1 cup raw cashews or macadamia nuts
1 pinch of sea salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey (or to taste)
Soak the nuts for about 4 hours and drain. Blend all ingredients using food processor or blender until creamy and smooth. Serve immediately or chill. The original recipe suggests adding a little water, soymilk, or almond milk to facilitate blending if needed (I didn’t do this).
I’ve made this twice with blueberries (original recipe called for blueberries) and once last week with strawberries, as pictured.
Update in 2015: I made this again – it was delicious. This time I used frozen strawberries. Because they were frozen, my food processor took a long time to get them pureed. I then added some oat milk – that helped a lot with the pureeing process. I forgot the sea salt – I have no idea why they are in original recipe. I will ask Klara. And this time even my daughter liked this dessert – she has plans to serve it in beautiful wine glass topped with real fruit and bits of cereal (I will definitely skip that last one for me). Update on wine glasses: too tall. Next time we will try yahrzeit glasses (small little glasses of which we own an abundance). Note: the little glasses (we used yahrzeit glasses worked). Tip on using frozen fruit: let it defrost for about twenty minutes or more … that will help making the blending easier.
I caught this squirrel with a strawberry in his mouth (is it a wild strawberry or one of our garden strawberries – not sure, but it looks like the wild kind). So I grabbed my camera and decided to do Nature Notes. I confess, I haven’t been doing much observing of nature, though I have been gardening. My peas did very well in their cage this spring; I saw a deer walk right past the gardening cage (but the deer did take a chomp out of the tomato plants that were outside the cage).
I did not plant this tall lily in this spot behind my pink rose bush. I used to have similar lilies in a different part of my garden; I probably pulled them all out by mistake when I was weeding. Or they died a natural death. So I was surprised to see a lily blossom elsewhere in my yard.
The raspberries that grow on old can are now ripening in our backyard. The ones on new cane are usually more abundant, and we get to enjoy those in August. Last year wasn’t a great crop; maybe this year will be better? I read somewhere that one should prune the raspberry bushes so they have space in between them. I tried to do some pruning last year. It is hard to photograph a raspberry – the camera doesn’t realize you want to focus on that tiny berry.
Ilana-Davita presents a lovely currant cake recipe. We don’t see many red currants in New Jersey – I suggest trying the cake with blueberries. I did find an article about red currants suggesting they do exist in New Jersey. I can ask the farmers at our local Highland Park Farmer’s Market. Ilana-Davita says she doesn’t see many blueberries in her part of France. According to this redcurrant Wikipedia article, the North American currants may not taste as good as those of Western Europe.
Ingredients
one pound of red currants
3 Tbsp spelt flour (yes, just that small amount of flour is needed)
1 pinch of salt
3 large eggs
3 Tbsp natural cane sugar
1 glass (appr. 200ml) of buttermilk or milk substitute such as almond milk or oat milk
1 pkt of vanilla sugar (may use vanilla extract)
Mix the flour and salt with the eggs. Add the sugar and milk. Grease a baking pan and lay the currants at the bottom. Add the batter and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar. Bake for 45 minutes at 360°F.
This recipe is my mom’s but I have changed it slightly. She uses plain sugar and flour and mixes the vanilla sugar with the rest of the batter.
This cake reminds me of Mollie Katzen’s Cranapple-Walnut Cake – I used to make that one with whatever fruit I had available. As Mollie noted at the head of the page: “~very moist ♥♥♥.”
And because Ilana-Davita took such a red photo of currants, I am submitting this to Ruby Tuesday:
Put banana, raspberries and oat milk in the blender or food processor and blend. You can double or triple the recipe if you have friends visiting.
When you have finished most of your smoothie, don’t panic. Add some grape juice and seltzer, and enjoy a new version of this treat.
You can also use blackberries and/or blueberries, but then you can’t really use the photographs for Ruby Tuesday:
I was inspired by the Green Smoothie of Reluctant Vegetarian, but when I suggested the addition of kale to the smoothie, my daughter balked.
I made this cake last week, and oo la la, was it yummy. Here’s the recipe: take my orange cake recipe and throw in a pint of blueberries.
And perhaps this week I will make mabul cake. A friend just told me how to marbleize cake: pour in the white batter. Pour the chocolate batter in stripes over the white batter. Move a knife back and forth in the opposite direction of the chocolate stripes. Will it work? Advice welcome.
