Kitchen Kerfuffle Episode 1

The funny thing about having to stay home during this whole COVID-19 debacle is you enhance your culinary creativity. Here are the good, the bad, and the REALLY ugly of my Quarantine Kitchen. These recipes are from March 12th through April 30th.

March 12, 2020 - Respiratory Relief Tea

IMPORTANT AND THE EASIEST TO DO

If you've been to any of my classes or received a session from me, you might be aware that Otto has been dealing with respiratory issues, on and off, for at least a year now. We have tried countless of interventions, including Chinese Herbs, Antibiotics, various cough medicines. At the start of the "shelter-in-place," I got to reading about the hydrophobic nature of the virus, specifically its lipid outer layer. So I added a little coconut oil to my normal lemonade tea, plus added Reishi Extract, which I read does not enhance the cytokine immune response in the body, so it is one of the safer Chinese Tonic Herbs to take. As soon as Otto drank this (and he LOVES it!), his cough went away, almost overnight!

March 27, 2020 - Gluten-free, Vegan Chocolate Cake

I embellished this recipe for a decadent treat. Sometimes, they say that when you are feeling no sweetness in your life, you tend to look for something sweet as a replacement. Well, #stressbaking has definitely taken over our household, starting with this bad boy. It was fluffy and delicious straight out of the oven, but with prolonged refrigeration it became a more dense chocolate cake, akin to most flourless cakes I have tasted in the past. That being said, it was still delicious.

April 2, 2020 - Vegan Apple Gallette

I am a fan of the Great British Baking Show. There is nothing more relaxing than watching a bunch of British folk courteously competing in a baking competition. This actually happened while I was watching their "Pastry Week" episode. It was a result of trying to make a vegan puff pastry, and massively failing. In my defense, I don't even own a rolling pin. So I just decided to make a gallette, especially since I also don't own a pie tin. These days, I simply use a recipe for a vegan pie crust that I found online. It is super easy to make.

As far as the filing goes, I just cooked some apples in vegan butter, added some dried currants, sprinkled some brown sugar (to taste), added a capful of vanilla extract, and added a dash of cinnamon. I don't measure, so it's up to you to calibrate the measurements on this one. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of chef. I put the filling in the middle of the pie crust that I rolled flat, then I just folded the edge into the middle to seal. I made some designs with the leftover crust, and brushed some of the sauce from the filling outside. I baked until the outside was a nice dark brown.