I'm pavlova'n it

Pavlova is a beautiful dessert from New Zealand. And Australia. Actually, that's a controversial topic. You can read about the drama here. 

It's easy to make (so easy, in fact) and certainly a crowd pleaser! Basically it's egg whites, sugar and a few extra ingredients. How hard is that? 

I use this recipe. (you may notice, it's also lowfat - I mean, come on!)

I top it off with homemade whipped cream and fresh, beautiful, colorful berries. 

It's beautiful. delicious. light. fresh. You're welcome. 

left over pavlova batter makes cute meringue kisses 

and it sconed me to my soul...

Scones. I love em. They're the perfect middle man. Add dried fruit, apples, nuts - make them sweet. Add cheese, scallions, herbs - make them savory. Helllooooo? How versatile is that? 

Tonight I craved sweet scones. Something with apples. Mainly because we have an overflowing apple bowl on our counter and I like to use whatever we have too much of. 

I found this recipe as I did a quick google search, and decided to try it out. Naturally, I 'sigi-fied' the ingredients, amounts and execution. 

The end result: amazing.  

sig-gestions: Use less sugar in the batter, add more apples, plus cinnamon and 1 tsp of vanilla. 

Also, if you don't have greek yogurt as the recipe calls for, use buttermilk, regular yogurt, sour cream ! 

I tweaked the glaze recipe - added less butter and sugar, more vanilla and a pinch of salt. 

sigi(pan)cakes

Mama makes the best pancakes

which is why I recently asked her for her "recipe". 

Thing is, she doesn't even use a recipe, she simply... mixes ingredients. 

Our convo went like this. . .  

Me: Mam, how do you make your pancakes?

Mama: mix some flour. . . let's say. . . oh, I don't know. . . half a cup, with one egg. . . add some milk. . . not too much, but not too little. . . and then some sugar. Just a little bit of sugar. Mix until. . . you know. . . it gets to the right consistency. 

. . . ok. 

So I did. 

But this time, I added mashed bananas, a sprinkle of cinnamon and cooked the pancakes in coconut oil. (the benefits of coconut oil are endless!) 

I made these little sigi(pan)cakes for my Danish family. The kids literally swallowed them whole. 

Good thing I know child CPR. 

peppermint pattycakes

. . .these are a variation of this recipe by, drum roll please, Martha Stewart. The original recipe calls for raspberry jam and cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies. . . instead, these cupcakes are with peppermint patties and a mint marshmallow fluff frosting!  

The cupcakes were moist, rich chocolate with a gooey peppermint patty surprise inside. . . The frosting was tasty and sweet, yet tricky. . .  It permeated through the tops of the cupcakes and disappeared by the morning!  Oh well, your taste buds and stomach don't know the difference :)

Enjoy! 

these were created last summer with Darija 

what scones around, comes around

Cranberry Clementine Scones

Best scones I've ever made.

The recipe is, of course, from Martha Stewart. She usually has complex ingredients and procedures for her recipes, but this is simple, quick and so delicious!

The beauty of baking is that once you have the flour-baking-soda-baking-powder ratio set, you can pretty much add anything you fancy! Per usual, I sigi-fied the recipe. Rather than orange zest, I used the zest of one clementine plus the juice. Also, as a replacement for the plain buttermilk, I used low fat pomegranate kefir. This sly substitution helped create these beautifully moist, tangy, delectable, soft on the inside with a perfect exterior crisp - scones!

Sigi says: try various combinations... chocolate/clementine, blueberry/lemon, coconut/lemon, fresh cranberries, blueberries, apples/oats/cinnamon....

cupcake hour!

Bloody Mary Cupcakes

So here's the story. . . for Christmas last year I received a lovely gift from one of my best gals Darija. The gift was seemingly common - a book of cupcake recipes. . . yet with a twist (of lime!) - this book was full of "Intoxicated Cupcake" recipes.

  

The list of colorful, inventive, boozy recipes includes cupcakes mimicking flavors of our favorite happy hour delights... margarita, strawberry daiquiri, bellini, cosmo (just to name a few) ..... and of course, possibly the most enticing recipe - 

Blood Mary Cupcakes.

With every ingredient we added- tobasco sauce, celery salt, tomato soup. . . our curiosity grew. . . 

the cupcakes turned out super moist, sweet and spicy, almost a gingerbread meets pumpkin spice... definitely a unique cupcake! 

The only modifications we made: for the glaze, we ran out of vodka and used limoncello and added lime zest to the glaze AND as a colorful garnish. 

Enjoy! 

lime zest and sea salt as a garnish

fresh ground black pepper added a nice kick! 

orange you thirsty?

A hydrating treat: Watermelon-banana-orange-grape-flax seed smoothy 

No sugar. No fat. No more left. 

Blend all ingredients (cubed watermelon, one banana, one orange, a handful of grapes, a handful of flax seeds) with ice and a dash of orange juice and/or water!

Enjoy!