Dixon Transition Society’s Shimmy Showdown

Filmed and edited by myself

Last week the Dixon Transition Society hosted a fundraiser featuring bellydancers, silent auction, raffle prize and food: the Shimmy Showdown! It was a wonderful event and the venue quickly filled to standing room only. I even won some auction bids and am excited to be buying my first Dress 911 dress shortly and eat my Dolce Delights at the same time.

I was initially surprised and not overly excited for the combination of bellydancing with an organization that is to support and help women while defending the rights of any woman. But I learned a lot about bellydancing and how it has transformed from a dance to please men to a dance that empowers women. Watching the skill and talent of those women showcased their dedication and work to an art they love. Also, the dancers are of every body type, age, etc. The dance really appeals to every woman, just as Dixon serves every woman.

I hope the Dixon Society continues to bring the community together with events such as this that empower, share and inform while supporting their cause.

And as a side note, if you haven’t noticed, Recipe Sunday is no longer. But stay tuned as I am working on a new, very exciting project.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and More Scones

I have mind boggling, insanely slow and annoying internet in this new place. Hence the lack of post last Sunday and yesterday. Bah-humbug I can’t wait to get out of this place. But before that…

Las Vegas!

And San Francisco. I can’t wait to get new food ideas there. And shop. And gamble of course.

While getting some beautiful photos. Should make for a great birthday and end to a wonderful summer.

No guarantees I’ll be able to post while I’m there for two weeks but I should have lots of good stuff afterwards.

And to make up for the past little bit, I am excited to share a delicious ‘breakfast’ scone that I like to enjoy at any time. Just recently I served it with the petit fours for the Spa Night I organized at work.

(Speaking of which, my Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries made a come back at our Wrap Up BBQ by popular demand!)

What You’ll Need:

• 3/4 cup cold buttermilk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• a large egg
• 2 tsp cocoa
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup soy flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill, you can substitute this for whole wheat or another extra healthy flour)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cold, cold butter (just not frozen)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 large egg white
• sprinkle of sugar

What To Do: 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cut the cold butter into small pieces to make your future much easier. Combine the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla and egg in a medium bowl with a whisk.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa and mix well. Cut in the butter pieces with a pastry blender if you have one. If your like me, use two knives. You want this mixture to resemble coarse meal:

Once that’s done, fold in the chocolate chips. Carefully add the milk mixture and stir just until it’s moist.

Flour a hard surface. Scoop the dough out and knead lightly with floured hands so it’s less runny. On a floured baking sheet, form the dough into a circle (roughly 9 inches but I’m very bad with those things). With a good knife cut the dough into wedges, 9-12 of them, all the way through so it leaves a dent. This makes it a lot easier to cut later.

Brush the egg white on the top and sprinkle some sugar over it lightly but even. Bake until golden, around 18-20 minutes. Cut and enjoy!

Certainly not the healthiest recipe I’ve ever done, but I figured such an absence deserves some deliciousness. It’s roughly 5-6 points a serving, depending on the size of your scone.

Strawberry Cheesecake. Except Very Small, Very Yummy, and Very Easy.

These past couple of weeks have been crazy and stressful. There was a leak in my apartment building and I’ve had to move out for an undetermined amount of time. As I’m sure you can imagine, it has been very annoying.

It also means I am not in my own kitchen. And this one is small.

In addition to all of this, I organized a spa event for work last Thursday of which I planned to do all the baking in my own time. Work stress plus personal stress plus having to bake new recipes for about 30 people? It is such a relief I find peace in baking.

One of the most popular recipes from the spa night were my Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. Adults loved them, kids adored them and I really enjoyed their simplicity.

What You’ll Need:

• A whole pile of strawberries.
• 1 package of light, plain cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup of powdered, confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• graham cracker crumbs

What You’ll Do:

In a larger mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until well mixed and creamy. Scoop the cheesecake mix into a Ziploc bag until needed. Just before you’re ready to serve, cut the top off of rinsed strawberriesand hollow if need be. Ensure the strawberries are dry before you fill them. Cut the tip of one corner of the Ziploc bag off, making a tiny hole to pipe out of. Squeeze until the cheesecake fills the strawberry and leaves a nice round top. Fill all of the strawberries then sprinkle them with graham cracker crumbs. Serve chilled.

Using the Ziploc bag as a piping bag can be tricky and requires some practise. But it is a very handy trick to have up your sleeve. Now enjoy these delicious treats!

S’mores without the Smoke

I love to go camping — with the exception of campfire smoke, mosquitoes and gross bathrooms. But I love just sitting around the fire, relaxing in a lake and making s’mores! During summers like the one I’m having (aka without any camping) I probably crave s’mores every day. So I did something about that.

What you need:

Four ingredients, how hard can it be? Organic chocolate sauce, Dandies vanilla flavoured vegan marshmallows, a little vanilla and graham wafers. The Dandies might be the hardest to find but are so worth it. And buy a few bags, they are addictive little sweets. Honestly, I prefer them over regular marshmallows.

What you do:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line your baking sheet with tinfoil and give a quick spray of Pam or another non-stick spray. Evenly spread out the bottom half of your wafers and give each about a 1/4 tsp of vanilla per s’more. Cut your marshmallows in half and stick them on each corner of your wafer, two sticking to each wafer. Put a dollop of chocolate in the middle, add your top half and stick them in the oven. Let them sit in there for about 10 minutes. Take out and enjoy!

One annoying thing I found was the vegan marshmallows didn’t want to melt, no matter what. They became a little stickier but they just don’t melt like regular marshmallows. But that didn’t take away from their deliciousness. You can try to turn up the heat or leave them in longer if you want. If you find something that works, let me know!

Vegan Family Picnic

Vancouver’s weather has finally decided it is time for summer and the sun is out! To celebrate this beautiful time, I invited my parents out for a picnic dinner. I told them it would be healthy, organic and mostly local food.

I didn’t tell them it would be vegan.

Now, when I originally invited my parents, I hadn’t planned on a picnic. I bought groceries and made recipes not expecting a picnic. So most of the meal would probably taste better hot, but I served it cold.

For the Thai Coconut Brown Rice:

You only need 2 cups of brown rice, Happy Planet‘s Thai Coconut Soup and 1/4 cup of cornstarch. I didn’t use instant rice which worked out well, the 50 minutes it takes to cook the brown rice is enough to prep everything else. While the rice cooks, pour all of the soup into a sauce pan and heat it on a medium setting.

When it starts to get warmer, add the cornstarch to thicken. Stir really well and continue to heat until it reaches a thicker consistency. Set aside to wait for the rice. Once all is said and done, mix the rice and the Thai Coconut mix together and serve warm or cold.

Left overs are good for a couple of days. In fact, I’m eating some now for dinner.

Then my “Steak” was a new dish, not only for my parents but for me as well. It was really tough for me to find a good meat substitute that would look like meat to help hide my secret from my parents.

It wasn’t so good cold, but man was it delicious when I tried them hot!

They come frozen and all I did was spread them on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

I just wish they came with more sauce, I thought they were a little dry.

But what topped the meal off for me was the bread I bought. I love A Bread Affair breads. Local, fresh, organic…what’s not to love?

Some of the best breads I have ever tasted.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, it was my mom that had the hardest time with the vegan meat. I knew my dad would eat it, I just thought he’d mock it more. But mom had a really hard time with the texture. To quote her, it was “all in [her] head” and I’m proud she did so well with it.