On Life As A Picky Foodie

Give 10 people the same recipe and you'll get 10 results. It's part of what I love about cooking. And in the hours I spend perusing food blogs, I am consistently struck by two paradoxical thoughts: how similar we all are and at the same time, I see and experience our differences. What an amazing time we live in that I can visit kitchens in Toronto, Hong Kong, NYC, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires in the space of a few minutes. 

The only things missing are the smells – although those are easily imagined with the help of some great writing -- and the tastes, which can be recreated in my own kitchen in my own way. 

If you read this blog, or are a part of the extended food-blogging community, you probably know about Jennifer Perillo who recently lost her husband.  Watching people from all walks of life and stretching the globe band together to help this woman and her little girls has been incredibly touching.  It has also gotten me thinking about that same paradox of cooking: how many of us felt touched by her story because we feel a similarity, and yet how different most of our lives are from hers. 

When you think about it, however, no matter where we live, who we are or what we do; no matter what our circumstances, after our basic needs are met, we all want the same thing: to be happy.  But it is exactly where our desires concur that we differ – as the meaning of happiness is so personal. 

So I have these cookies, right?  My Everyday Cookies that I blogged about a few weeks back.  As I said then, cooking is what I do when life gets complicated.  It's what I do when life is great, when it's hard, when I'm scared, when I'm happy. These days, cooking is oftentimes my main creative outlet.  

Originally these cookies were created as something that Vida Lev could enjoy on the go.  They weren't meant to do anything beyond that.  I needed something simple, quick, and, of course, healthy and delicious.    

One night, on a whim, I made them.  And my little girl loved them as did her Dad.  Then the neighbour enjoyed a few, and my mother and grandmother.  My brother took a box, my niece gobbled some.  These silly little cookies were a Picky Foodie hit.

Whenever someone confided that they were worried about giving their children processed food, or that they didn’t have much time (or desire) to cook, I would point them to my Everyday Cookies.

The responses have been wonderful.

“These are going to be a problem!” one friend emailed forty-five minutes after I’d sent her the recipe.

“Fantastic!” came another friend’s message, “we can’t stop eating them” (we meaning herself, her husband and her little one – you see, these cookies are inter-generational).

I actually make two batches at a time now – one for DW and one for Vida Lev.  The best part of these cookies is that the basic recipe remains the same:

1 ½ - 2 cups ground almonds
¼ cup melted coconut oil
¼ cup maple syrup
½ cup raisins
1 egg (optional and very much according to personal taste – including it will create a softer cookie.  For the record: Vida Lev likes the egg while DW prefers without.)

Preheat the oven to 175 Centigrade (347 Fahrenheit)

Using an ice cream scoop, drop the cookie batter on a non-stick baking sheet in even mounds.  Flatten lightly with a wet fork (optional). 

Bake for 9-11 minutes, depending on your oven.  The cookies should come out of the oven slightly browned around the edges but still soft.  Allow to cool completely before serving.

And when I run out of one ingredient, I substitute another without fuss: so far, we’ve done the plain version, a batch with honey, some with and some without vanilla, and one with banana and rosemary.  Sometimes I’ve blended the ingredients together, other times I’ve left the raisins intact.  These are low-maintenance cookies for sure.

They’re so insanely easy.  It makes me wonder why I bother with the more complicated stuff. 

But another, unexpected development has emerged: using the basic recipe as a template, the inhabitants of my virtual as well as my in-person world have started making these cookies and in doing so they have adapted this recipe in a myriad of ways.  People have been making it their own, changing things around to suit their unique palate and best of all, they’ve let me know about it.  It’s been wonderful to read about in emails and see the results in pictures.

So much so that I’ve been inspired to reach out to the larger community.

Here’s the idea: if you have or are interested in making your own version of my Everyday Cookies, I’d love to hear about it.  Please send me your additions, subtractions, changes and adaptations as well as any information you’d like me to include about you.  Photographs are welcome too. 

Please email your entry no later than October 12th, 2011 to: Gabriela at thepickyfoodie.com

In order to show my appreciation for our similarities and our diversity, participants will receive an e-copy of the collected recipes.

N.B. On a side-note, Jennifer Perillo needs our help.  Bloggers Without Borders have created #afundforjennie to help her and her children in this difficult time.  Please check out their site and bid or donate what you can.  

I meant to post the pineapple picture for a week.  We were leaving to Israel and –is this weird? – I don’t like to advertise when we’re going away.  DW calls me a “a healthy mix between constructive paranoid and psycho.”  Possibly… 

So I put up the photograph, and finished packing our bags.

It was supposed to be a relatively simple, fun family-reunion.

But then it all went pear-shaped.

First there was a family emergency.  Five days of hell, while we waited for tests results and all kinds of levels to rise, fall and generally even out. 

Then there was the aftermath when we all looked at one another in a state of shock and tried to enjoy what was left of the ummm holiday (?).  However, nobody told Vida Lev that sleeping in was an option, so we remained exhausted even after three days at the beach.   

I will say this: it wasn’t all bad.  Vida swam in the ocean for the first time.  She tried all kinds of interesting and fun things: petting her grandmother’s cat, watermelon, proper Middle Eastern hummus. Our little girl also took her first steps.

And in the middle of it all, I baked cookies.

There was something wonderfully soothing about mixing together the ingredients, sticking them in the oven, waiting for them to cool and then enjoying them.  The mundane amidst the chaos reminds us that somewhere out there, life is still going on as normal. 

Originally these cookies were intended so that Vida Lev would have something to nosh on when she got hungry in her pram.  But when my grandmother tasted one and promptly requested that I show my mother how to make them, I thought I might be on to something.  The deal was sealed when my brother – who hates raisins – happily polished them off.

Everyday Cookies

Preheat the oven to 175 Centigrade / 350 Fahrenheit

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following ingredients:
-  1 ½ - 2 cups ground almonds (less makes for a softer cookie, more makes for a heartier one)
-  2 t vanilla (I use pure vanilla bean powder)
-  ¼ cup melted coconut oil
-  ½ cup raisins
-  ¼ cup maple syrup

Once those are well-combined, add
-  1 egg*

Using an ice cream scoop, drop the cookie batter on a non-stick baking sheet in even mounds.  Flatten lightly with a wet fork (optional). 
Bake for 9-11 minutes, depending on your oven.  The cookies should come out of the oven slightly browned around the edges but still soft. 
Allow to cool completely before serving.

* Note: a friend of mine made these without the egg (I simply forgot to mention it on the ingredients’ list).  In her words: “These cookies are going to be a problem…  We made them, licked the bowl clean and ate five between us.” 
So I’m going to try this (vegan) version next time.
To my friend, I would like to say: Dearest, after the month that just passed, believe me, those should be our problems :)

UPDATE
I have now made these cookies without the egg -- so completely vegan.  In fact, I even omitted the vanilla by accident (15 minutes to baby's bed time, empty fridge, food needed for tomorrow's outing -- you do the math).  DW agreed to be the taster.  He proclaimed them "Oh My God" and "better than with the egg," saying they tasted "buttery," and "like shortbread."  I'll take that as a yes.  
Without the egg, I baked the cookies as instructed above for 11 minutes.  Then I turned the tray around, switched off the oven and left them in for another 10 or so.  

He hadn’t been gone more than an hour when the ideas started coming to me.  Maybe I would make a wild rice salad, or a green smoothie with rocket and the leftover frozen cherries.  When I’m sad, I make food.

Some people eat when they’re emotional, others burrow away like squirrels in the winter.  I cook.  That’s not to say that I don’t indulge ias well, but mostly, it’s about the act of creation.

From the moment he left, I started planning what I was going to be baking.  The baby looked up at me and smiled as if she knew what was coming.  Soon enough, she was secured in her little seat on the counter sucking on an Italian blood orange as I whipped up blood orange ice cream.  I had to use up the rest of the coconut milk, after all.  The idea that I was making something that would keep until his return pleased me.  We could celebrate with a couple of scoops, a little cup each to toast being back together. 

The ice cream cups are grey, with a brown stripe running around the top.  Beautiful Danish design.  Everything in this house that has any kind of aesthetic comes from my grandmother.  I love watching her inspect my belongings when she comes to visit.  She smiles in recognition of the things she has given me over the years, the cutlery, the tablecloths, the mugs that we use for ice cream or chocolate pudding. 

He texted me from the airport: it all seems so unreal. 

It does.  The baby said goodbye to him like she does every morning, unaware that this time it would be for much longer.  There is no way to explain it to her yet.  And in this feeling of dislocated reality, I got down to cooking. 

I found myself wanting to make his favourite things.

After the ice cream was in the freezer, cookies seemed like the easiest thing: quick and simple, before the baby lost her patience. 

Ba, she said happily holding the blender plunger in one hand and her snack in the other, ba mba, mbaba. 

Yes, I replied, cookies.  Sweetness combined with a little rosemary, to suit my bittersweet mood. 

Bababababa Nanamba.

Glad we agree, I said, giving her a kiss that she didn’t really want.  The orange was way more interesting at that moment.  Thankfully.

Here we go! his text read, I’m switching off now.  Will let you know when I arrive.

I put the cookies in the oven.   The baby was now wanting a change of scene.  Last night, when I told her we were going “au bain,” she looked me in the eye and said, “au bain.”

Au bain? I asked her now.

Mbadum badum.

My sentiments exactly. 

Rosemary Almond Cookies 
(makes about 28 small cookies)

Preheat the oven to 204 Centigrade (400 Fahrenheit)
-  Grind 1 cup almonds  and 1 cup hazelnuts
(the end result should be 1 cup of each)
-  Mix in:
2 t vanilla powder
¼ t salt
¼ c melted coconut oil
¼ c coconut nectar*
1 (organic, free-range) egg**
pinch rosemary

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add everything but the egg.  Taste the batter to make sure it’s not too sweet, not to savoury.  Only then should the egg be added to minimize the risk of food poisoning.

Using an ice cream scoop, form little balls on a Silpat sheet or non-stick tray.  Use a fork to carefully flatten into cookies.

Bake for 9 minutes.  After removing from the oven, place on a rack and allow to cool fully.    

*  If there is no coconut nectar available in your area, you can substitute with 1/2c date syrup (no sugar added) and 1 T honey.
**  if you don't eat eggs, mix 1T ground flax seeds with 1T water.  Allow to sit and turn into a gel and use this mixture instead.  However, it's important to wait until it has gelled.  

P.S.  To turn them into slightly savoury chocolate chip cookies, simply add a chopped up tablet of 100% unsweetened chocolate