Strawberry icebox cake for Labor Day

I wanted to share a recipe appropriate for American Labor Day, our hallowed end-of-summer celebration (as opposed to Real Labor Day, which they observe everywhere else on May 1st). It's a frozen strawberry cheesecake that you can whip up with minimal labor. Plus it's dairy-free and relatively healthy. And delicious, duh. The recipe is adapted from Green Kitchen Stories (looove this blog).

Strawberry icebox cake

Crust 
2 c. almonds
10 fresh pitted dates
2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted to liquid
a generous pinch of salt

Filling
2 c. fresh or frozen strawberries (blueberries and raspberries would work too)
juice from half a lemon
1/2 c. honey
1 c. soy cream cheese (I used Tofutti, but make sure it's free of hydrogenated oils)
1 c. plain or vanilla soy yogurt (can substitute Greek yogurt)

Grind up the ingredients for the crust in a food processor. Then flatten out the crust in the bottom of an 8-inch spring form cake pan. Stick it in the fridge while you make the filling. You can rinse out the food processor or use a blender to mix the ingredients for the filling. Pour the filling on top of the crust and freeze for 1-2 hours before serving. If you store it overnight, let it soften a little before eating (otherwise you'll get that horrible freeze-burn sensation on your teeth).

Summer time in my mind

It's been comically cloudy and cool in San Diego for the past couple weeks; while our friends in the north, east, northeast, northwest, south, and whatever Texas is are "enjoying" the full force of summer, we've been wearing jeans and debating light sweater or coat.

Now to be clear I am not complaining -- we do not lack sunny days, and today I count myself among the lucky few in the US who could survive preheating the oven to 500 so we could give the pizza stone K got for her birthday a test run. I'm really sorry I'm posting so much pizza but this one was too good to pass up. Yet another secret about yeast that I did not know -- it doesn't like chlorine (surprise surprise). In addition to sunny days, the other thing we have plenty of is chlorine in our tap water... So this time I heated up a cup of filtered water in the microwave for the bloom and it made a huge difference (also didn't hurt that I let it rise for two hours instead of my usual impatient one)

Made a quick red sauce (half an onion sauteed, a 15-oz can of roasted tomatoes, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of cornstarch, salted to taste, and pulsed a few times in the blender), a few halfway-to-caramelized red onions, goat cheese, baked for about 8-9 minutes, and then topped with a handful of arugula (walnuts would be really good on this too, but I forgot). Holy macaroni it was good, and what a difference the pizza stone makes (if you don't have one, a 12" cast iron pan still works pretty great)

Here is a little Vietnamee-ish Bún salad with peanuts and a tamari-honey sauce that Kris made a couple days ago. Also I was psyched that these came out of the camera white balanced pretty much perfectly (tried the "PRE" setting for the first time -- awesome)

Bonus hardly bartending! From 4th of July weekend, I present the Mint Julep, a.k.a. Whiskey Snowcone (wouldn't that be a great band name? much better than Whiskeytown) Typically these are served in metal cups, I used the bottom half of my cocktail shaker which quickly became too cold to hold for more than a few seconds, which I have to imagine is part of the allure of the drink. Real southerners I'd love to hear if this is right or wrong:

Mint Julep

Muddle 10 mint leaves with 1/2 tsp simple syrup
Fill cup with shaved ice -- about 3/4 of an ice try pulsed a few times in the blender
Pour 2 1/2 oz (2 shots) of bourbon over the ice (I used Bulleit which I love and is pretty cheap at TJ's)
Stir and garnish with a few mint leaves and maybe a dash of powdered sugar

...so sadly, I wasn't really aware of liquor when I lived in Georgia. I remember a SoCo with Lime poster at Rocky Mountain Pizza and Jaegermeister at every bar, but I'm guessing Coke's presence kind of killed the chances for any cocktails that weren't Beam and Coke or Bacardi and Diet, Which in retrospect really seems like a shame so close to Tennessee and Kentucky

ultimate vegan BBQ

i don't like tofu. there. i said it. and forget about those frozen patties and processed soy products (full of neurotoxins). it's tempeh, glorious tempeh that dominates my "meat replacement" preferences. our memorial day menu featured barbecue tempeh sandwiches, carrot-cayenne coleslaw, california guacamole (hass avocados, cilantro, red onion, garlic, cumin, salt, lime juice, serrano pepper or chile powder), strawberry shortcake with balsamic chocolate sauce, and plenty of rum punch.


the sandwich recipe is adapted from bryant terry's vegan soul kitchen (my new bible). one taste of the hot/smoky/sweet sauce and i had really died and gone to vegan heaven.

BBQ tempeh sandwich

• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (Braggs, if you can find it)
• 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 3/4 c. tamari (kyle thinks tamari makes a big difference here so don't sub soy sauce)
• 1/4 c. your favorite organic ketchup
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 c. agave nectar (or honey)
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• pinch of cayenne
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 packages of tempeh, sliced to desired serving size
  
• loaf of ciabatta bread
• veganaise or mayo
  
• your favorite coleslaw

Combine all the ingredients (except for the last four, obviously) in a food processor and puree until smooth. If you don't own a grill (neither do we), place the tempeh along the bottom of an oven-safe dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Toast slices of ciabatta under the broil. Assemble sandwiches, dress with mayo and coleslaw. Dig in!

i also made shortcake muffins from this super easy recipe and served them with fresh strawberries, chocolate sauce (1/4 c. plain soymilk + 4 oz. chocolate chips), and balsamic reduction (balsamic vinger + sugar/honey/agave). what I should have known was that reductions take FOREVER. after ten minutes I gave up and turned off the stove. twenty minutes later it was perfectly reduced. and delicious enough to share with our neighbors.

it seems like there are two types of shortcakes: the biscuit variety and the spongy, cakey variety. is there a regional difference? i would love to know.