This is a thai-inspired curry that used ingredients I had at home, rather than what you *really* need. I’d say if you have the real thai ingredients, use them. But the substitutes were pretty good!
♠ The ingredients
1 medium onion
1 zucchini
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 butternut squash (pre-cooked and diced)
1 japanese eggplant
1 can of coconut milk
ginger (galangal best but regular if you don’t have it)
2 handfuls fresh cilantro
1 handful parsley
olive oil
salt (for the LID, non-iodized salt)
1 large red chilli
Zest of 1 lime (or 3 Kaffir Lime Leaves)
♥ Special equipment: Food processor
♦ The Method
In the food processor, combine: lime zest, parsley, cilantro, ginger, chilli, olive oil, salt. Process into a paste. Scrape down a few times and keep grinding to make a smooth paste.
Chop vegetables into matchstick sized pieces. In a skillet or wok, sautee separately. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add can of coconut milk and your curry paste. Simmer. Add vegetables and bring to a slow boil. Then down to a simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve over rice (or for the LID over quinoa for some protein).
They say you don’t really appreciate things until they’re gone. I can attest to the truth of that statement now. I’ve never felt so deprived as I have for the last 2 weeks on my new Categories“low iodine diet“, a requirement of my treatment. I’m a vegetarian, I’m used to only having a few option at restaurants, and bypassing entire aisles of products at the grocery store. I even went vegan for a few months in college, but I guess I’d forgotten just how restrictive *that* was. This is a whole new level of challenge.
So what exactly do I have to cut out?
Iodized salt and sea salt (we don’t know what food manufacturers use so it cuts out all restaurants and all pre-made ingredients). Imagine going to a “team lunch” and not being able to eat, unless you order something salt-less or a salad without the dressing (my lunch today at a thai restaurant that usually has amazing food. the salad was pretty good, and pretty, though!). Think about life without condiments (no mustard, no thai chilli paste, no chilli-garlic salt), store bought bread (dough conditoners and the ubiquitous “salt” (with no mention of what kind) in every package, even cinnamon raisin bread!). Luckily my darling sis and brother-in-law lent me their bread machine. yay.
Soy. As a vegetarian who cannot eat beans, soy-based fake meats and edamame have become my lifeline. It’s also in a lot of foods. Not to mention soy sauce and its friends.
Dairy. No milk in my coffee, no cheese, no chocolate! I never thought I’d miss cheese…i only eat a little. but it adds so much taste & flavor. oh and the cheese substitutes? All have soy or salt or a sea-based ingredient. blurgh! (not to mention, they look icky). I’ve cheated a little with dark chocolate. I don’t think I can live without chocolate in my life.
whole eggs. Egg whites are good, luckily.
Anything from the sea. Ok i don’t eat fish, no biggie, right? Wrong. I learned the hard way (reading labels on 20 boxes) that almost all non-dairy milk and several vegetarian substitutes for other things have one dastardly ingredient I cannot have: carageenan (made from red seaweed). Or Agar-agar (also from the sea). Others (rice milk) had salt. My savior? hemp milk, you are my friend.
Molassses
The upside: I’ve become resourceful and creative. It’s a real challenge to make tasty and flavorful food with limited ingredients. Frankly the recipes in the low iodine cookbook don’t look exciting.
I’m two weeks down….two more to go. And for the next few weeks, I thought I’d share some of the new, creative recipes I’ve made with what I can eat: veggies, fruits, lentils, egg whites, and things I can make myself. It’s been a lot of work, but it *is* kind of fun. And maybe you’ll like them. And maybe it will help someone else who has to go through this.
This is one of my favorite dishes at an Afghan restaurant…sweet/tart/spicy pumpkin and pulao. My version improvises with things I had in the house…
Ingredientsfor the pumpkin part
1 Acorn squash (butternut or actual pumpkin work too)
1 medium onion
1/4 cup water (add a little more at a time if you feel like you need it)
3 oz of tomato paste
1 Tbs of garlic paste
1 Tbs of ginger paste
a dab of sriracha (really random but good)
1 Tbs of sugar/brown sugar/agave/honey (optional)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 t turmeric
2 t ground coriander
1/2 jalapeño
yogurt sauce
1 C yogurt
2 scallions
1/2 c cilantro
1/2 a jalapeno
dash of berbere (or garam masala)
1 t cumin
The method
Wrap the squash in foil and toss into the oven/toaster oven until soft–you want it to still have some shape though (30 mins). Alternately, you can microwave it. I put it in for 5 mins at a time, about 2 or 3 times. You don’t want it mushy–you want to be able to cut it into pieces.
2. In a heavy bottomed skillet, saute onion in some olive oil. Add garlic, ginger, tomato paste, jalapeno, sugar, water, sriracha, and cinnamon stick. Simmer while the pumpkin is cooking. The longer it simmers, the more flavorful it gets. Chop the cooked squash into pieces and add that to the tomato mixture. Simmer for a little while longer.
Before serving, blend together scallion, cilantro, a pinch of salt, cumin, berbere, and yogurt in the blender.
Top pumpkin with a dab of the cilantro-yogurt sauce.
the Challow/Pulao (I said “rice” because I used quinoa instead).
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup boiling water
1/2 onion
1 cinnamon stick in pieces
2 pods of cardamom
star anise if you have it
3-4 dates
3-4 apricots
a handful of cashews
salt, pepper to taste
Why quiona? it’s quick. it’s “healthier” than rice. we like it. Saute the onion in a saucepan. Add the quiona and boiling water. Simmer. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise. Cook til it’s cooked and fluffy (and the water is absorbed). Saute the cashews, apricots, and dates in olive oil or a dab of butter til the nuts turn brown. add to the quiona and tada!
Every fall, we had apples falling off our tree…so my mom made lots of apple cake. This is a new recipe and it’s TASTY, easy, and looks pretty. It’s not so healthy yet (attempts at that coming later).
Ingredients
4 apples
1 stick of butter
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
2 full eggs
2 tablespoons calvados, rye whiskey, brandy (whatever you have)
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of regular sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup pecans
the method
Peel, core and chop the apples into thin slices. In a heavy skillet, add 1/4 cup of melted butter, the brown sugar, and 1/2 of the spices. Add some water and 1/2 of the rye whiskey and then toss in the apples. Let the apples cook.
Line a round cakepan with parchement. Spray it with cooking spray. Sprinkle a small handful of sugar and swish around.
Separate 3 eggs–save hte whites for something else. Add 2 full eggs and 1 cup of sugar. beat. Add 1/4 cup of melted butter, vanilla, the rest of the calvados/whiskey, and the rest of the spices and stir. Sift the flour and baking powder slowly into this mixture. stir. Spice the mixture to taste.
Preheat oven to 350
Line up 1/3 of the apples in a layer concentric circles in the cake pan. Drizzle a little of the syrup from the pan on top. Add 1/3 of the pecans in a circle on top of the apples. Add 1/2 of the batter on top. Add another layer of apples in a concentric circle. Top with pecans (try to put them in a different place than the first circle of pecans). Drizzle with a little more syrup. Add remaining 1/2 of the batter on top. Line up the final layer of apples. Put the syrup from the apples back onto the stove and simmer until it thickens and set aside. (stir carefully or it will burn).
Bake for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 mins and then invert onto a platter. peel off the parchament.
1 parsnip or turnip peeled and chopped into 2″ pieces
1 small potato peeled and chopped into 2″ pieces
1/2 a large onion
2 cloves of garlic (or garlic paste)
1 carton of vegetable or mushroom broth
red chilli flakes
truffle oil (to taste)
salt
♣ The Method
Chop the onions. stir fry the onions and garlic with a little olive oil until golden. Add the celery root, parsnip, potato, and vegetable broth. Cover the pot and cook until veggies are soft. Add chilli flakes, truffle oil, and salt & pepper to taste. Blend 3/4 of the soup with the immersion blender. leave the rest so there’s some texture. You may need to add a little water to the pureed part to make it soupy again 🙂
It’s Deepavali today (aka Diwali), the Hindu festival of lights, one of India’s biggest holidays. The holiday metaphorically celebrates light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, new beginnings, and the triumph of good over evil (Rama’s return to his kingdom after 14 years of banishment and vanquishing Ravana, in one telling). We celebrate by lighting lots of lamps, praying to the goddess of wealth for a prosperous year ahead, firecrackers, which is where the name comes from. Deepa is light+ Avali which is a row=a row of lit clay lamps.
Key to the celebration is also FOOD! So last night, I tried my hand at a classic celebration food of sorts–payasam. K asked for semiya payasam (aka: vermicelli noodle pudding). I put aside my preference for Paal Payasam (rice pudding)…and set to work ;). And it was taasty!!
Here’s a quick-ish and healthy-ish version:
Ingredients
Payasam for 2 (obviously you can double this to stretch it)
2 cups of milk (i used skim, some people would go with whole)
3 Tablespoons of 2 percent milk powder (other recipes tell you to go with Condensed Milk…a good option)
1/2 package of vermicelli noodles
1/4 Cup of Sugar (more to taste)
2 handfuls of cashews (**my hands are tiny, FYI 😉
2 handfuls of raisins
2 pats of butter
2 pods of cardamom
4 strands of saffron
In a heavy bottomed saucepan (like my mom, I used my enameled cast iron one), heat up the milk on medium, stirring regularly, until it comes to a boil. You can cover the pot, just keep checking on it. Neglect it and it will boil over or scorch.
In a separate frying pan, melt one pat of butter til sizzling. add in the vermicelli and gently swirl it around until it takes on a light golden color. remove from the heat.
When the milk comes to a boil, turn down the heat to simmer, add in the milk powder and the vermicelli. Stir gently and cook for 10-15 mins (til the noodles are tender). Add in the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Cover the pot again.
Add another pat of butter to the frying pan and stir fry the cashews and raisins til the cashews are lightly golden and the raisins plump up (5-7 minutes probably). Then Crush up the cardamom pods with a mortar/pestle or a rolling pin if you don’t have one of those. Or a coffee grinder.
Add the cashews and spices to the pot and keep simmering for another 5 mins.
The rationale: I had a tart granny smith apple and a zucchini laying around, but no carrots–so I decided to play with my previous recipe. I know, it sounds a little weird, but I promise you it’s delish. The zucchini and apple are both grated–and so they melt and make the muffin custardy and moist. You really don’t taste the zucchini. You can do this as a bread, too, probably. The things I’ve learned with these recipes: play with the proportions of almond to other flour…they taste roughly the same, but yield different flavors. You can customize the amount of sweetness and oil, too. (i’m finding the 1/4 cup of oil a little greasy–i think it’s the almond flour plus oil–so I may substitute yogurt for a little bit of it next time). Please try the recipe (or anything else) and then let me know what you think!!
♥ equipment needed:
grater or food processor (the food processor is definitely quicker)
muffin pan
muffin/cupcake liners
♣ ingredients
1 apple (granny smith or another baking apple best)
1 medium zucchini
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1 cup almond flour or oat flour (I ran out and used coconut flour and a little oatmeal for my 2nd batch…I don’t recommend the coconut flour version…it came out dry. you can also play with the balance of the almond & quinoa flours)
1/3 cup maple syrup or a mix of maple & agave syrups if you like it sweeter, use 1/4 cup)
1 egg
1/4 cup almond oil ( *** 1/4 cup makes it very moist but feels a little greasy…will try to reduce and see what happens in my next batch)
2 T cinnamon
1 T baking powder
1/2 T baking soda
1/2 T Salt
2 handfuls of raisins
1 handful of walnuts
♣ the method
Shred up the apple & zucchini. Mix up the egg, oil, and syrup in a bowl. Mix up the dry ingredients in another…add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Add in the raisins and walnuts. Place the liners in the pan and fill them with about 1 big spoon of batter. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Test with a knife to see when it’s ready. Allow them to cool & eat!
We had a few friends over on Sunday afternoon to enjoy what might be the last dregs of summer…barbeque style in our garden (where there’s a grill and a picnic table). So what do vegetarians grill? And how do you do it so it’s not just a bunch of vegetables on a skewer without flavor?
The Indian version
time: best if marinaded over night
♥ equipment needed: a grinder, gallon sized ziploc, skewers
ingredients:
1 Yellow pepper
1 Red pepper
1 medium onion
1 zucchini
1 portabella mushroom
1 Block of store bought Paneer* (feel free to make it yourself. I just didn’t have time)
1 stick of cinnamon
2T Ginger paste
1 T Garlic paste
1 T cumin
1 T corriander
1/2 T turmeric
1-2 dried chilis
1 T black peppercorns
olive oil
a squirt of honey*
♣ the method
Grind up the cinnamon, cumin, corriander, peppercorns & chilli in to a powder. Throw into a ziploc bag. Add turmeric, honey and olive oil to the bag (enough olive oil so it makes a paste that will coat the veggies. The honey makes the marinade stick to the veggies). Cut up the veggies & the paneer into large blocks (bigger so that they don’t fall apart when cooked) and throw those into the bag. Zip the baggie, and shake, shake shake! Throw into the fridge over night.
The next day, skewer them and grill them until the zucchini starts to wrinkle, the paneer is brown, and the veggies are soft.
The Italian Skewers
♥ equipment needed: a gallon sized ziploc, skewers
ingredients:
portabella mushrooms
1 onion
2 sprigs of rosemary
5 basil leaves
2 T garlic paste
olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
a small squirt of mustard*
splash of white wine (not required)
a splash of orange juice*
honey
fake meat if you want (we like Field Roast “Sausage” cut up into bits).
Mix the balsamic vinegar (to taste), olive oil, mustard, garlic paste, orange juice, wine and honey into a baggie. {it’ll be trial and error to get exactly the flavor you want from the marinade. just adjust). Cut up the mushrooms into chunks (or leave whole and don’t skewer).Put those into the baggie with the onions and the fake meat if you’re including that. Stick it all into the fridge. Skewer, then grill.
* sorry, I know this sounds like a recipe an Indian aunty (or my mom) would give you in terms of not measuring…but I didn’t measure ;). I’ll try to do that next time.
This is really easy. I made it before work one day.
♥ equipment needed:
food processor (optional) to shred the carrots & zucchini
muffin pan
muffin/cupcake liners
ingredients
2 carrots (grated)
1 medium zucchini
1/4 cup quinoa flour (she uses brown rice flour)
1 cup almond flour or oat flour (I ran out and used coconut flour and a little oatmeal for my 2nd batch…I don’t recommend the coconut flour version…it came out dry. you can also play with the balance of the almond & quinoa flours)
1/3 cup maple syrup or a mix of maple & agave syrups (she used 1/4 cup but added frosting. if you like it sweeter, use the 1/4 cup version)
1 egg
1/4 cup oil (she uses grapeseed, I didn’t have any so I just used olive oil. and almond oil the second time. ***update 1/4 cup makes it very moist but feels a little greasy…will try to reduce and see what happens)
2 T cinnamon
1 T baking powder
1/2 T baking soda
1/2 T Salt
2 handfuls of raisins
1 handful of walnuts
Shred up the carrots & zucchini (hint, the food processor takes about 1 minute. the grater takes about 10 minutes). Mix up the egg, oil, and syrup in a bowl. Mix up the dry ingredients in another…add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Add in the raisins and walnuts. Place the liners in the pan and fill them with about 1 big spoon of batter. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Test with a knife to see when it’s ready.
We had some kale & beets in the fridge and sweet potatoes on the counter, so my mission was to see what I could create to use them up…et voila, superfood stew!
♥ equipment needed: a heavy pot (i like my Le Creuset Dutch Oven)
cooking time: 1 hour
ingredients:
1 bunch of Lacinto Kale (the curly kind), de-veined and chopped into
1 Golden beet (the red ones turn everything red, which kind of looks ugly), peeled & diced into 1-2 inch pieces
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1-2 inch pieces
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of green split peas
1/2 spoon of green curry paste
2 kafir lime leaves
1 nib of galangal (optional–you can use regular ginger)
1 teaspoon ginger paste
a handful of peanuts
the method:
Chop up the veggies into pieces. Saute the onion, garlic & ginger paste in some olive oil. When translucent, add in the veggies and split peas. Cover with about 1 cup of water. Cover pot and cook for about 1/2 hour-45 mins.
When the veggies are tender, add in the coconut milk, curry paste, and kafir lime leaves and simmer another 15-20 minutes.
The other night, we got a text message inviting us to a new Columbia Pike bistro, Chez Holly and Jonny “serving up eclectic fare”. The restaurant week special included panang veggie curry and basil egg plant drunken noodle.
The food was extremely tasty, the presentation flawless, and the ambiance and company, perfect. The noodles were perfectly flavored (sesame oil and fresh peppercorns were key contributors) as was the crispy eggplant. And the curry…mmm…This one we will be trying to replicate. And we came home armed with some Kefir Lime leaves…so we will be able to!
So this really was our friend’s house (as you could have guessed by the name)…but it really was as good as a restaurant..maybe a competitor to that house restaurant on U street. And…it was truly veggie friendly. No fish sauce, no anchovy paste. You rock. Thanks Jonny and Holly!
With DC baking at 103· last night, I decided we needed to make some gelato to cool down. It was my second attempt (first this summer) at gelato/ice cream making since we got our ice cream maker attachment, and it was so easy I’m wondering why I don’t do it more often. Pistacho gelato is one of our favorites and we happened to have some pistachios in the cabinet and an extra 1/2 gallon of milk in the fridge (I accidentally bought lactose free milk to make yogurt, and the hubbs told me that it’s not possible to make yogurt with that kind of milk).
** Serves 6, supposedly. Time required: overnight freezing of bowl, 30 mins cooking time, 40-60 mins passive waiting time (10 mins pistachio paste, 10 mins milk, 5 mins whisking, 5 mins thickening, 10 mins chilling, 30 mins churning, time to freeze)
♣ Step 1: Make a homemade pistachio paste
♥ equipment needed: a coffee/spice grinder or food processor or blender
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
1/8th-1/4 cup almond flour (or, ground almonds)
2 tbs water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
Pour the pistachios into the grinder. Grind until fine–you want it to get pasty. Scoop out into a bowl. Add sugar, almond flour, and extracts. Stir. Add water slowly–just enough to make it moist. Eh voila! you’re done. Yields a little over 1/4 of a cup (what you need for the recipe)
♣ Step 2: Make the custard
♥ equipment needed: A heavy saucepan, a whisk (or stand mixer), egg separator or your hands. A measuring cup with a spout is helpful. A wooden spoon is nice to have too.
2 cups of milk (I used 1%)
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup of your pistachio paste (or one that you buy)
shelled, halved pistachios for garnish
Heat the milk in the saucepan on low-medium. It just needs to simmer for about 10 mins. You don’t need to scald it (though that wouldn’t hurt anything). Stir periodically and keep an eye on it. Turn off stove and let it cool a little.
Meanwhile, separate the eggs…keep the 4 yolks and put the whites away. Put the egg yolks, sugar, and salt into the mixer or a bowl and whisk until the yolks lighten in color and look “fluffy”.
Slowly whisk in the pistachio paste.
Pour the milk into the measuring cup with spout. You want to slowly add the milk to the egg mixture (a 1/4 cup or less at a time) and run the mixer/whisk slowly until it all incorporates. Why slowly? you don’t want to shock the cold eggs with the hot milk.
Pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan. Put on the stove on low/medium low and stir…heat until it thickens slightly. (the trick is to put a wooden spoon into it. let the mixture coat the back of the spoon. run your finger through it. if you leave a wide track that doesn’t fill in, it’s thick enough). prob 5 mins is all need.
Cool the mixture down in the fridge, or by filling your sink with cold water and ice and letting it sit in there.
♣ Step 3: Churn baby churn! And then chill, baby chill.
♥ equipment needed:An ice cream maker or a stand mixer with an ice cream maker attachment (for which you’ll need to pre-freeze your bowl overnight)
Churn with your ice cream maker or ice cream maker attachment. We have a Kitchenaid stand mixer and an ice cream maker attachment. I followed those instructions–I froze the bowl overnight before and churned on the “stir” setting for 25 mins. It probably still needs some freezing–so put in the freezer for at least 20 mins after that. And then enjoy!
Our garden plot is highly productive and each day, we get a bunch of mystery vegetables and herbs that we need to figure out how to use. This day, we got a bunch of yellow and red tomatoes, a mini cucumber, a little yellow pepper, and an abundance of parsley and basil. We also had an avocado in the house, some garlic, and onion. What does that make? Gazpacho!! [K has challenged me to a gazpacho off…game on]
♥ equipment needed: a food processor
ingredients
a bunch of cherry tomatoes (red, yellow, organge)
a bell pepper (whatever color)
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 of a red onion, diced
1/2 a cucumber, diced
1/2 a raw mango, diced
1 avocado
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 chilli or 1 tsp chilli powder
cilantro, basil, and parsley if you have them. whatever you have is fine.
♣ the method
Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor bowl or blender. blend. I make mine thick and somewhat pureed. Put into a martini glass and chill or add ice.
We had a few sweet potatoes that we’d cooked a week ago that were just sitting in the fridge. What should we do with them, I thought. And then I remembered Swapna’s cool idea–sweet potato cutlets!
the ingredients
2 sweet potatoes (wrap in foil and cook in the oven until soft. peel)
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli powder
2 TBSP coconut flour* (new secret ingredient. it’s absorptive. and doesn’t add flavor)
a spoon of pesto or some fresh herbs
3 TBSP Panko breadcrumbs (regular is fine, too)
salt to taste
♥ equipment needed: baking sheet
♣ the method
Peel the sweet potatoes and mash the insides in a bowl. Add chili powder, garam masala, coconut flour, salt, and pesto. Mix well. Form into nuggets or balls. Flatten and coat in panko bread crumbs.
Lay on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake at 450 for about 15 mins or until they are lightly browned and firm. Enjoy!
* Coconut flour, I discovered, is a really good thickener. Where do you get it? Whole Foods or any health food store, probably.
A happy veggie foodie is someone like me: A vegetarian (no meat, no fish) who truly enjoys food and cooking. We likefood that has taste, flavor, is creative, and fun. A veggie foodie is happy when restauranteurs, chefs, and event menu planners understand that vegetarians like food. We’re not on a perpetual diet. We don’t want to live on salad. We aren’t lesser customers. We want to try new, interesting things–not just salad, steamed veggies, and veggies stuffed with rice. We want flavor and taste.
We enjoy creative, tasty food. We get excited when we have more than 2 main dish options on a menu that look good. We love restaurants and events that offer us things that look and taste good…whether it’s a creative new dish, a new play on something old, or occasinally an old standard. We get sad, on the other hand, when the meatatarains get something really cool and we’re told the veggie option is a vegetable plate. booh. steamed vegtables are boring. so are veggies stuffed with plain rice. Most of the time, these things lack the flavor we crave. I also am bummed when they point to a menu’s salad section and say “see, we have lots of options”. yes, but are they good?
A shout out to two DC sushi retaurants for making me happy. Today we looked at the menus for 2 sushi restaurants–Tono Sushi and Sushi Unni–that make the cut. They had cool stuff. Tono had a crunchy, spicy tofu roll…it was sooh good. Unni had a squash tempura roll and a few others that sounded fabulous (we haven’t tried it yet though).
I’d love your input–what do you want to see on this blog? What recipes do you want to see? Ingredients you want to figure out how to use?
This is a cake I made in 2009, inspired by a Giada De Laurentiis recipe. It was a hit, and my husband still dreams of it. And maybe next year, or a future year I’ll reprise it. Warning, this recipe is not for those short on time or patience…there are a lot of steps and ingredients. But it’s worth it. it involves the following:
Dark Chocolate Devils Food Cake (note: Williams Sonoma makes a pretty good box mix and that’s actually what I used the second time I made this)
A mascarpone filling
a pistachio toffee crunch
a dark chocolate ganache
Looking for a better photo…this is from 2009…and yes, my piping was kind of sad.
1 ounce high-quality dark chocolate (I changed this)
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup buttermilk [yogurt mixed with some milk works just as well]
2/3 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat to 350°F. Butter two round cake pans (2″ sides). Line bottom of pans with parchment paper; butter parchment. Combine cocoa powder and milk chocolate in medium bowl. Pour 1/4 cup boiling water over; whisk until mixture is smooth. Whisk in buttermilk.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars, oil, egg, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended.
3. Add flour and cocoa mixtures; beat until blended (batter will be thin). Divide batter between pans.
4. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached, 28 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks; peel off parchment. Turn over; cool on racks
The Ganache:
2 3/4 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp unsalted butter
1. Put the chocolate chips in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a boil in a medium saucepan.
2. Just before the cream comes to a full boil, pour the cream into the chocolate chips and whisk together until smooth.
3. Add the butter and stir until smooth and shiny.
The Mascarpone Filling: (my addition from the Giada recipe was cardamom)
2 (8-ounce) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature
Put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whip
The Crunch: (I doubled the recipe and used it for the sides of the cake). And I substitued pistachios for the original hazlenuts
1 cup (about 4 1/2-ounces) pistachios chopped and toasted [i used a bag of trader joe’s pre-shelled pistachios]
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 caramom pod
Place the toasted nuts close together in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir the sugar mixture until dissolved. Bring to a boil and let cook until the sugar is light brown, about 8 minutes. Let the bubbles subside then pour the caramelized sugar over the nuts. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and let the sugar nut mixture cool until hard, about 30 minutes. When the sugar nut mixture is hard and cool, pound into small pieces
Assembly
place a cake rack on top of a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or parchment [the ganache is drippy]
cut each cake into 2 layers (so you have 4 layers) with a long sharp bread knife spread 1/3 filling on top of the first layer. put down 2nd layer spread 1/3 filling over it put down 3rd layer spread 1/3 filling over it
* Restaurants that give vegetarians multiple, tasty sounding, creative and different options. (Hint...don't give us just old standards)
*Event menus that feature creative & tasty food. (Not...steamed/grilled veggies or anything stuffed with rice)
Things that make a foodie veggie sad
* Going to a restaurant or event where the vegetarian option is a steamed vegetable plate
* A waiter/waitress, when asked what good vegetarian options are, points to the salads. (Don't get me wrong I like some salads...but I don't necesarily want a salad I can make at home for dinner)
* A restaurant we've travelled an hour to get to says they don't have many veggie options...just scallion dumplings. mmm. no.
*Realizing that the vegetable item that looks so great on the menu is made with fish stock, beef broth, chicken broth, etc.
♥ tools: a heavy pot, an immersion blender 
A Happy Veggie Foodie 
