Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Happy Kiwi Fruit Day and Winter Solstice!

Blogger of the Day: Agnès at Interprétations Culinaires

The Winter Solstice is my favorite Winter holiday...from this point the days get longer and we get closer to shorts, tees, beaches and ice cream!  ;)

Until then it's still sniffle weather so pack in as much vitamin C as you can get! Kiwi fruits have superhigh levels of it...just one 2-inch kiwi gives you 85% of your daily vitamin C (plus a bounty more) and it's only 42 calories! You can eat them with or without the skin, sliced into salads and sandwiches, topped onto yogurt, swirled into smoothies...you can even dehydrate them into chips. Play with them and see what you get!

Agnès transforms kiwi fruit into her amazingly creative "Gâteau Capoeira"...that's French for Capoeira Cake, which she made and decorated for her Capoeira martial arts group. You can decorate it any way you like or just top it with beautiful green kiwi slices. It's sweet and rich and soulcheeringly yumful! Agnès is based in Paris so many of her recipes are in French (definitely worth translating) but she's also got a generous section of recipes in English. Crazygorgeous, so flavorful and many of them are deliciously simple!  :)













❄ Winter Solstice trivia...
• The word solstice comes from the Latin words for "sun" and "to stand still.”
• At the Winter Solstice, the Sun reaches its southernmost point in the sky.
• In the Northern Hemisphere, this occurs around December 21 or 22.
• This is the shortest day of the year, in which we experience the least amount of daylight in 24 hours.
• The Earth is still holding some Summer heat so the Solstice isn't necessarily the coldest time in Winter.
• Find your exact Solstice timepoint here.
Source

❄ Solstice-related holidays include...
Alban Arthan, a Druidic tradition involving mistletoe and swordplay!
• Yule celebrations, where symbolic logs are lit throughout Scandinavia and Northern Europe...make a wish!
Christmas, which may be celebrated with Midnight Mass or midnight milk & cookies for Santa or both!
Source

Solstice celebrations and Winter festivals are revving up everywhere!  :)

Do you have a favorite kiwi fruit recipe? Do you celebrate the Winter Solstice? What's the wildest Winter celebration you've ever been to?  :)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Happy Lychee Day!

Blogger of the Day: Janet at Vegan Feast Catering and Gonna Go Walk the Dogs
Pubs: The New Vegan: Fresh, Fabulous, and Fun

Meet the lychee (or litchi), a sweet juicy tropical fruit encased in a bumpy red inedible shell. You peel it, seed it, munch it up...then keep on eating more because they're lowcal and powerpunched with vitamin C! Historically they've mostly been grown in China, India and Southeast Asia but if you're lucky enough to live in the "tropical" US, you can find them fresh at farms and farmers' markets in Hawaii, Florida, Texas, etc. If you can't find them there or in your grocer's produce section, look for canned lychees in the canned fruit or Asian section of your store. No lychees in sight? Sub in its cousin the punkrad rambutan!  :)

Janet's not afraid to try crazycool things like lychees, seaweed, rambutans or mangosteens. As head of Vegan Feast Catering she's a creative superstar, inventing recipes that use weird, freaky and exotic ingredients blended brilliantly in surprisingly imaginative ways. She's famous for her zillions of spins on cupcakes, plus she's dreamed up gelatinfree blueberry "jello"...holydeepblue cups of yum!  ;)











How do you eat lychees? Have you ever tried a Lychee Martini? Are you brave enough to try exotic fruits and veggies? What's your favorite way to eat a cupcake?  :)

Check out the rest of our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Happy Plantain Day!

Bloggers of the Day: Justin and Amy at The Chubby Vegetarian
Pubs: The Southern Vegetarian

Many Latin American and Indian dishes feature plantains, a close cousin of bananas. Plantains are starchier, a bit tougher to peel and almost always eaten cooked...often simply fried with a bit of spice and sugar. That's how I first tasted them, when I was a kid. My parents had just come home from a vacation in Curaçao, brimming with inspiration from the Caribbean cuisine...suddenly all sorts of tropical treats starting showing up on the table! Most were mysteries to me (and superspicy!) but I'll never forget those sugary slices of fried plantain...yumza!

Plantains are perfectly at home in the Memphis kitchen of The Chubby Vegetarian. Professional photographer (and marathoner!) Justin and Amy, an award-winning writer and teacher, are veg cuisine connoisseurs doing a modern spin on Old Southern Favorites and international classics too. They turn average ingredients upsidedown and insideout to create sensory stunners...deeply rich tastes that Justin deftly captures in enticingly staged scenes. Even the plain plantain becomes of work of art in their talented hands!  :)











A few helpful links to learn more about plantains...
Turbana brand Plantains...basics, nutritional info, tips, a few vegfriendly recipes
Chiquita brand Plantains...basics, nutritional info, tips, a few vegfriendly recipes
Melissa's brand Plantains...basics, nutritional info, tips, a few vegfriendly recipes
Grab Em Snacks Gourmet Plantain Chips...Plantains vs. Bananas? plus Plantain Recipes
Frying Ripe Plantains...about.com's guide to ripe plantains and how to fry them
How To Ripen Plantains...Raw Food Health's Video and Picture Guide

Have you tried plantains? In a restaurant or at home? What's your favorite tropical fruit? Is there a mystery fruit you'd like to try?  :)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Happy National Fruit Compote Day!

Blogger of the Day: Joseph at Joseph Shuldiner
Pubs: Pure Vegan: 70 Recipes for Beautiful Meals and Clean Living

I love going to visit my Uncle T...he's a crazyfun teacher, world traveler and art collector, plus one of the best vegan chefs on the planet. He's a passionate cookbook collector so he was overthemoonhappy when I got him Pure Vegan...it's full of fabulous foods and photos and is almost too beautiful to use but of course he does! My favorites so far are the Muhammara, Jicama Salad and Pistachio Olive Oil Cake...yumza! I should have gotten a copy of this book for myself but for now I'm happy to sample dishes and learn all I can from my talented Uncle T.  :)

The author of Pure Vegan, Joseph Shuldiner, is an artist, writer, gardener, educator and entrepreneur who also started the Altadena Farmers' Market and the Institute of Domestic Technology. He doesn't have a recipe blog (he's probably too busy!) but he and his publisher, Chronicle Books, have shared several of the best recipes such as these...









http://www.josephshuldiner.com/
Joseph's artwork is unforgettably stunning and sensitive...check it out in his online portfolio under Fine Art.

Do you have a favorite vegan who teaches you how to cook? What's your favorite cookbook? Which cookbooks are at the top of your wish list?  :)

Find more feasts in our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!