Summer Berry Pavlova

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Summer Berry Pavlova

Summer Berry Pavlova

Heat is oppressive. It wasn't until this summer that I fully began to understand the effects of a never-ending swelter. With a heatwave lasting the length of the sunny season bearing down on me, cool air has seemingly become a luxury of the past. I now realize just how often I took air conditioning (and a hundred other little things) for granted since I moved into a new apartment in a new city.

I used to think heat was glamorous. After reading books set in the deep south such as The Secret Life of Bees and watching movies like Gone With the Wind, my perspective has become skewed. I imagine pretty girls in patterned dresses drinking lemonade on the back porch and fanning themselves with a good book to stave off the sultriness of summer.

Oh, was I wrong.

Summer Berry Pavlova

My apartment is on the top floor of a building; when temperatures rise, the heat in the building rises, and I'm left with a kitchen that could pass for a sauna. The blazing sun has become an unwelcome sight in my windows. Keeping the blinds closed has become something of a survival tactic, as my apartment converts into a stifled cave when I struggle to keep out the heat. I have a small wall air conditioner, but it is useless against the rising heat of the building, scarcely lowering the temperature after running for most of the day.

The heat rarely registers below ninety degrees in my living room and I am starting to understand how food roasting in the oven must feel. At night the temperature impossibly rises as I strip the bed of sheets and fall into a fitful sleep in the path of an industrial fan. I've suffered bouts of heat exhaustion simply from lying on the couch in a heat induced stupor for too long, exhausted and dehydrated from doing absolutely nothing.

Summer Berry Pavlova

There is nothing glamorous about heat. I couldn't have been more wrong in my fantasies of the women of the south and their glasses of lemonade and magazine fans. Now, after living in my own little "deep south," I can appreciate how much people do suffer in the heat, with humidity so high that it suffocates and air so still it feels like a boa constrictor slowing wrapping itself around your body. Heat is really just sweat, frizzy hair, and dreams of crawling into the freezer next to the frozen vegetables.

Last weekend, my parents held a small summer party and I offered to make a couple desserts. Outside in the hot summer air, these Summer Berry Pavlovas were a cool treat to serve and impress. They are light and delicate, which is a lovely quality during the dog days of summer when a bowl of cold cereal is good enough to call dinner.

Summer Berry Pavlova

This Summer Berry Pavlova is sweet, light, and fresh. The pavlova is a large meringue with a crisp exterior and a soft, marshmallow-like interior. When the pavolva cools, the center collapses, revealing a cavity that is filled with a white chocolate whipped cream. The pavlova is topped with fresh raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, with white chocolate shavings and a dusting of powdered sugar. These are a cool delight when the heat is high and friends are near.

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Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

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Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

Growing up, I was a picky eater, especially when it came to tree nuts. I avoided them during my childhood and teenage years simply because they looked "gross" to me. Each Christmas, my father would get a jar of mixed nuts wrapped up in a bow. He'd offer them to me to give a try and I'd turn him down. Though nuts were frequently found in the cupboards and in desserts at family get-togethers, I was so frustratingly picky I wouldn't give them a chance.

Not a single one.

Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

I visited an allergist for the first time after my tongue swelled up like a balloon after eating fresh kiwi in a middle school Beginning Foods course. As long as we were there, my mother and I decided to test for a slew of random foods, animals, and plants. Most notable was my allergy for cats (already known) and, surprisingly, tree nuts. In fact, my arm grew so angry red and swollen, the allergist immediately wrote me out a prescription for adrenaline. I was severely allergic to most tree nuts and never knew it.

Since that day, I've landed myself in the emergency room ICU from a single, accidental bite of an "oatmeal raisin" (macadamia nut) cookie. I've developed the early symptoms of an allergic reaction when I'm in a room where other people are eating pecans just from breathing in the microscopic pieces hovering in the air. I've interrogated many bakers and cooks what exactly is in the food they make hoping that, unlike a particular lady and a "chocolate cake" incident (Oh, hazelnuts are a nut? Whoops.), they'll let me know what to avoid.

In a twisted piece of fate, the fact that I was such a frustratingly picky eater growing up may have saved my life.

Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

Even so, I've always been inexplicably drawn to almonds. I remember moments of guilty pleasures when I'd sneak a few chocolate covered almonds from the cupboard before my parents came home from work. Though I am supposed to avoid all tree nuts as a precaution towards cross contamination, I am technically (and oddly) not allergic to almonds. If you pay attention to the sheer number of almond recipes on this website, you may think of me as either rebellious or an unnecessary risk taker.

However, if I wasn't a bit of a rebel, these cupcakes wouldn't exist and oh boy am I glad they exist.

Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

Almond Butter Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream are dark, gorgeous, and unexpected. The cupcakes are made with almond butter, which lends a texture to the cupcake that is both light and dense, while just barely sticking to the roof of your mouth. Frosted with a rich mocha buttercream, the flavors compliment one another immensely, making it impossible to eat just one. The almond flavor in these cupcakes is very real (no almond extract involved), which sets them apart from other almond cupcake recipes.

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Thoughts on Going Vegan: Meal Ideas & Afterthoughts

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Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

I've had many requests in the last week to share a few vegan meal ideas that I enjoyed over the last month. The requests were from people just starting to eat vegan or vegetarian diets to those of you who were simply looking for a few alternatives to try out for Meatless Mondays. I do understand that trying a new diet can be very overwhelming in the first couple weeks and I hope that sharing meal ideas and tips with you can help ease any transitions. To preface this, I can be a little boring when it comes to cooking for myself and I often find myself preparing and eating similar meals week after week simply because I enjoy them. I don't, however, think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Breakfast

I am a fan of big breakfasts. I don't feel experimental in the mornings, so I often enjoy the same meal day after day.

  • Blueberry Breakfast Quinoa with a glass of orange juice (I ate this nearly every morning—I love it and it's packed with protein!)
  • Cold cereal with almond milk and fresh berries

Lunch

I pack a lunch during the week so I try to eat foods that fit into a lunch box and can be kept fresh with an ice pack.

  • Hummus & veggie sandwiches (toasted bread spread thick with hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach) with apple slices or carrot sticks
  • Vegan cream cheese & veggie sandwiches (toasted bread spread with vegan cream cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and sprinkled with sunflower seeds) with fresh fruit or cut-up bell peppers
  • Vegetable soup (since I could not find a vegan canned/bagged soup, I would make a big batch of my own soup on Sundays so I could nibble on it throughout the next few days)
  • Peanut butter and jelly with a banana (it's a classic and perfect to whip up when I needed to be out the door five minutes ago)

Dinner

Dinner was often my biggest meal of the day and I'd usually take some time to cook up a nice meal.

  • Spaghetti with a fresh tomato and basil sauce (though vegan sauces are very easy to find in jars)
  • Tacos made without sour cream/cheese (though you can buy vegan sour cream—I'm just not a fan of sour cream on tacos in general). The taco meat was made of meatless ground crumbles and taco seasoning [note: these meatless ground crumbles were a staple for any meal where I wanted a ground hamburger/turkey substitute. I'm absolutely in love with these and highly recommend them (and I'm not being sponsored to say this). They make the transfer from traditional food to vegetarian or vegan food much easier.]
  • Pasta with sauteed vegetables in a wine/olive oil sauce (sometimes I used spaghetti noodles while other times I'd use penne pasta and added the meatless ground crumbles for a more robust meal)*
  • Potatoes with beans and roasted corn or asparagus
  • Stir fry with vegetables and tofu on a bed of rice

*I made dozens of variations on the pasta/vegetable dish depending on the kind of wine I had, vegetables, or noodles so it was different every time I approached it.

Snacks

I do like to enjoy at least one snack a day and these were a few foods I'd reach for when I just wanted something to munch on.

  • Bowl of a healthy cereal with dark chocolate almond milk poured on top and sprinkled with fresh berries (it's a little sinful and tastes kind of like ice cream)
  • Ants on a Log (celery sticks or apple slices spread with peanut butter and raisins)
  • Vegan cream cheese toast sprinkled with sunflower seeds (I really feel in love with vegan cream cheese and almost prefer it to the real deal)
  • Fruit smoothies with tofu (this Banana Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie is one of my favorites and it's super filling)
  • Almonds and a glass of dark chocolate almond milk (since dairy-free chocolate can be hard to find/expensive, a few sips of this milk would nix any chocolate cravings that would pop up)
  • Veganbakedgoods (for better or worse, I do actually eat quite a bit of the food I share with you. It has to go somewhere.)

It has been a couple of weeks since the challenge ended, but I still eat an almost exclusively vegan diet when I'm preparing food for just myself. During the vegan challenge I developed a new way of cooking, with new recipes, and I just don't want to give that up. To put it simply, I don't miss or crave meat and will choose the vegan option if I have the right ingredients in the house. That said, when I am with friends or family, I will eat meat when I'm at a restaurant or enjoying a home cooked meal from my mother. I found this is a good balance for me, though it may not be the right one for everyone.

I did see an allergist and was tested to see if I did have a milk protein allergy as I believed. In reality, I do not have one. However, the general consensus seems to be that my body does not know how to process dairy products efficiently, which results in symptoms very similar to a milk protein intolerance. Since the vegan challenge, I still eat a dairy-free diet whenever possible; I feel much healthier without dairy than I ever did with it. However, dairy in very small amounts seems to be okay, which means that soon butter may once again find a place in my heart.

I still encourage you to try out new vegetarian or vegan meal options. While I'm certainly not going to try to convince you to go on a particular diet, I think trying out new foods and recipes can be a good experience for everyone. Meals based around plant based diets are often healthier than animal based diets and, in addition to helping you to enjoy more fruits and vegetables, they can open a little window into a world of food you may not have explored.