Hope everyone had a fun Labor Day weekend! Guess what- we had a baby boy! Little Ezra has arrived and we couldn’t be more excited, grateful, happy or in awe! Now we are a forest family.
As we enjoy these last days of summer, I thought I’d share a recipe that I did for the current issue of Remedy Quarterly, a fantastic foodie magazine that everyone should know about.
Enjoy!
We have so much zucchini coming out of our garden right now that I have started baking zucchini bread to freeze for when our baby comes (today is my due date!). I found this amazing recipe for vegan zucchini bread from Joy the Baker, and it’s so moist you’d never know it was dairy free. Joy’s version is “almost vegan”- she makes hers with buttermilk, but I have substituted Almond Breeze Almond Milk and it works beautifully!
This isn’t a super sweet bread, so to make it feel more like a dessert I made a simple almond glaze of almond milk, vanilla and powdered sugar (you could add almond extract to make it taste more nutty).
Happy Baking!
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VEGAN ZUCCHINI ALMOND BREAD
adapted from Joy the Baker's Almost Vegan Zucchini Bread
makes one 8×4 or 9×5-inch loaf
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
½ cup Almond Breeze Almond Milk
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
¾ cup thinly sliced almonds plus a bit more for the top of each loaf
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8×4-inch or 9×5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together Almond Milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and sugars. Shred the zucchini using a grater and squeeze it over a strainer to release some of the liquid. Whisk thoroughly, then add the shredded zucchini and almonds.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula. Make sure all of the flour is thoroughly incorporated into the batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan, sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and place in the oven. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
Allow to cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Bread will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 5 days.
Optional: Drizzle warm slices with Almond Glaze before serving. For the glaze, simply stir in a bowl: ½ c powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon Almond Breeze Almond Milk, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract.
This post was done in partnership with Almond Breeze but opinions are completely my own. For this recipe I used the unsweetened original flavor Almond Breeze Almond Milk.
I recently went peach picking at a friend’s place up in Sonoma County and came back with a TON of peaches! (thanks for all your peach recipe ideas!) This salad is one of my favorites and I make some version of it all summer long!
serves 4-6
3 peaches, sliced
1 large (heirloom-type) yellow tomato sliced
1 large (heirloom-type) red tomato, sliced
small handful fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn
1 (8-oz) ball fresh mozarella cheese or burrata, torn into bite-sized pieces
olive oil, flaky salt (like Maldon) and freshly ground pepper
Scatter all ingredients on a platter. Drizzle the top with a good quality olive oil (try my Forest Feast x PRMRY finishing oil, it’s perfect for this), plus salt and pepper. Enjoy!
For an easy summer appetizer just stack a strawberry, a mozzarella ball and a leaf of basil on a toothpick! Like my Watermelon Feta Mint bites, they are great for BBQs and picnics as they can easily be made ahead. They were part of a summer entertaining menu I put together for InStyle magazine recently- see the whole menu here!
A couple weeks ago I hosted a dinner party that turned out to be one of my favorites, ever. The catch: I’d never met any of the guests before! Cooking a sit down dinner for 18 people at 8 months pregnant felt like quite a feat, but with lots of help, it turned out so well and I had so much fun!
I hosted the dinner in collaboration with EatWith, a very cool website that helps people host or attend dinner parties in homes all over the world, and has a similar mission to The Forest Feast: to create community through food. EatWith asked me to invite people who I follow and admire online, but who I had never actually met in person. I curated what I think turned out to be an amazing group of creative people. We had a design blogger/stylist, a party/lifestyle blogger, a florist, an architect, a calligraphy artist, a painter, a chef, a maternity fashion maven, a cabin enthusiast, a food writer, a foodie marketing guru, a magazine editor/coworking space founder, and several more. Such an eclectic an inspiring bunch!
I decorated one long table on the deck with greens I picked near the cabin plus lime halves, mini eggplants, kumquats, hot pink carnations and candles. I used a mish-mosh of plates and chairs that I’ve gathered over the years at flea markets. During the cocktail hour we had a spread of nuts, cheeses, fruit, crackers, olives, etc, plus my Guacamole Deviled Eggs, lots of chilled rose´ and a pitcher of Aperol Spritz. For dinner we prepared a buffet table full of summery vegetarian Forest Feast dishes from my cookbook that could be made ahead and served at room temperature: Watermelon Salad, Nectarine Tomato Salad, Kale Caesar with Polenta Croutons, Yellow Squash Galette with pesto, Polenta Stuffed Portabellos, Roasted Potato Salad with green beans. Dessert was a mix of chocolates, fruit, cheese, macaroons and Dipped Strawberries from my book.
It turned out to be a perfectly warm evening with a bright pink sunset and no mosquitos(!). Can’t wait to host another dinner party - perhaps after the baby arrives :)
Thanks to EatWith for sponsoring this dinner and thanks to all the lovely guests who trekked out to the woods!
