I seem to develop a new food obsession every couple of months. I went through a period of intense and insatiable grapefruit lust a few months ago – there was nothing more delicious in the world to me than a ripe grapefruit at that time, and I ate one almost every day. Right now I’m in a berry bubble. If you haven’t noticed, berries have appeared on my blog a lot recently, and it’s because I’m absolutely obsessed with them nearly to the point of dependency.

My craving for berries is nowhere near over, but I’m starting to feel the intensity ease up a little now that the initial excitement from all this newly seasonal fruit has settled some. And right on cue, a new craving has emerged: Mint. Guys, I’m losing my mind over this stuff right now.

The beautiful spring weather we’re having right now in Georgia (on the days it isn’t pouring down rain, at least) has me wistfully dreaming of sipping cocktails on patios in the sunshine. It won’t be long now before the bully that is summer in Georgia comes to scare away this brief moment of fair weather, replacing it with a beatdown of searing sun rays and suffocating chokehold of humidity. Of course I’m exaggerating, but only a little.

Anyway, we’ve been too busy for cocktails on patios lately, so I’ve been entertaining myself by recreating the flavor of one of my favorites at home, one that just so happens to feature my food obsession of the moment. Mmmmmmmojitos!

The mojito is a mixture of rum and club soda, flavored with the refreshing additions of lime and mint that have been muddled with sugar. The flavor is so clean and crisp with the herbal aromas of lime zest and mint leaves scented throughout. The sugar never fully dissolves, and instead soaks up the other flavors, making for a sweet and flavorful sip with lots of texture.

These mojito bites are made with nothing more than nuts, dates, lime, mint, and agave to sweeten. I’ve rolled them in sugar to recreate that gritty undissolved sugar you get in the bottom of the glass – my favorite part. And guys, they really do taste like mojitos! It’s a perfect replica! Sans booze, of course.

I’ve been keeping these in the refrigerator so I can enjoy them cold, just like a cocktail. Every bite is a burst of fresh mint and lime, and I especially love getting to lick the minty sugar off my fingers afterwards.

For a clutch of poppable minty snacks to curb your own cocktail cravings, follow these easy steps…

Raw vegan mojito bites

All the flavor of the classic summertime cocktail with none of the hangover.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Makes 22 to 24 bites

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw unsalted macadamia nuts
• 1 cup raw unsalted cashews
• 3/4 cup chopped dates
• 3/4 cup fresh mint leaves
• 4 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice
• the zest of 2 limes
• 1 tsp. raw agave nectar
• pinch salt
• white sugar for rolling

Cooking Directions

1. In a food processor, pulse together nuts until small. Add dates and pulse to combine.
2. Add in mint, juice, zest, agave, and salt. Process until a paste is formed.
3. Pinch off small bits of the paste and roll into balls. Roll balls in sugar.
4. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Best part: No hangover!  Second best part: No straw clogged with mint leaves! Third best part: No giving yourself a headache trying to suck the mint leaves up through the straw! Fourth best part: No deciding it might work better to blow the mint back down the straw and having half the drink explode out of your glass as the mint shoots out of the straw like a cannon!

Just me? Ok.

Oh, and they’re completely raw and vegan too. Nifty!

UPDATE: As a reader pointed out, white table sugar is usually not a raw or vegan product. Bone char, a product made from charring animal bones, is often used to de-colorize sugar for that bright white look. Even sugars labelled as raw often are not. Usually they are processed into white sugar before adding back some of the natural molasses to appear less processed. When making this recipe, I fully intended to use truly raw and vegan sugar but didn’t realize I was out of it until it was too late. I meant to say something about it but forgot. If it’s important to you that these snacks are indeed raw and vegan, be sure to read the labels on your sugar products carefully or omit altogether. Sucanat may be your best bet. It is a dehydrated sugar that retains all of it’s natural molasses, making it one of the least processed sugars available.

What flavors are you craving right now?

What cocktail would you like to have in a bite-sized treat?

May 13, 2013 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 25 comments

Last week, Jeff and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on May 1st. I said it last year around this time and I’ll say it again – it feels like we’ve been together much, much longer than that, but I mean that in the sweetest way possible. My memories of the time before “us” are hazy and dull. The happiness I’ve experienced since we met has been bewildering. I didn’t think this kind of love existed for ordinary people like us, and it just keeps growing and getting better and better.

Enough with the mush.

We’ve had 2 bottles of champagne left over from our wedding that have been taking up space in our fridge for 3 frickin’ years now, and though we would love to have the space back, we just can’t ever find a good enough reason to pop such a special bottle. If we’re splitting hairs, then I should mention that they’re actually cava, a Spanish wine made in the style of champagne (it’s not technically champagne unless it’s made in the Champagne region of France.) I’m not a wine person, so I have no problem erroneously referring to them as champagne. Tastes like champagne to me.

I had the idea for this recipe a few weeks ago and asked Jeff over dinner one night if he would be comfortable with letting me use one of our special bottles to make it. I could just see him debating it heavily in his head, and it was actually several days before I was given the blessing to use it. I figured there would be a lot of it left that we could sample later that night and reminisce together over, but somehow I ended up using the whole dang bottle! Whoops.

It turned out fantastic though. It’s not really boozy at all, but there’s a heavy white grape flavor with a bit of tingly something there, kind of like the enzyme-y tingle you get from honey. It’s a bit on the thin side too but I thought it was fine that way, good for dipping a croissant in. It would be absolutely incredible as a topping for vanilla bean ice cream or paired with some really nice cheese.

Strawberry champagne jam

The classic marriage of strawberries and champagne in a luscious jam.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 6 cups strawberries (leaves removed and cut in half)
• 1 cup white sugar
• zest of 3 lemons
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 750mL bottle of champagne (about 3 and 1/2 cups)

Cooking Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together strawberries, sugar, zest, and juice then allow to sit for 1 hour covered with a kitchen towel.
2. Transfer contents to a large, heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot and pour over the champagne. Stir until foaming has stopped.
3. Turn on the heat to just above medium and allow to come up to a low boil. Stir frequently with a spatula and reduce heat if you feel anything starting to stick to the bottom or it could burn.
4. After 1 hour, test doneness by adding a small dime-sized dollop onto a frozen plate. Wait 20 seconds, then tilt the plate. If it runs freely, it needs more time; if it barely runs, it's done. Continue boiling jam until it passes the run test.
5. Finished jam can be canned or the majority frozen while a small amount is kept in the refrigerator for immediate use.

Obviously, a jam recipe that uses an entire bottle of champagne is not made inexpensively. This is certainly not something you’re going to make on a whim unless you’re just rolling in cash. It would, however, make for a very thoughtful and personal anniversary gift to give to a special couple in your life. I know Jeff and I will get much more enjoyment out of this jam than we were getting from that bottle taking up room in our fridge that we never had the heart to open.

Just don’t wait 3 years like we did.

Do you have a sentimental food item you can’t bring yourself to indulge in?

May 7, 2013 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 20 comments

I remember when I was a kid we had blackberries growing in our backyard. They were on the corner of the property, twisting and winding out of Dad’s ever-growing pile of lawn clippings. I remember filling a mason jar with them and begging my Mom to bake them into a pie for me. She artfully dodged that bullet by instead making me a bowl of the berries in milk, sprinkled liberally with sugar.

I loved the tart berries with their sandy coating of sweetness swimming in a bowl of sugary milk- it was summer in a bowl.

I saw blackberries at the market a few weeks ago and thought they were looking ripe enough to try. Berries are one food I will never buy out of season, they’re a totally different and disappointing food when they haven’t had enough sunshine yet to sweeten them up properly. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, but for some reason that memory of sugared berries that I hadn’t had since I was a child came to mind.

If I was going to do this I wanted to class the whole thing up a bit, make an “adult” version of my childhood treat. Green matcha tea sounded like the perfect grown-up sprinkling sugar flavor.

The flavor is still mostly sweet, with just a faint springy green flavor similar to the herbal flavor of mint. It’s not bitter at all. The best part may just be the leftover sugary green tea milk at the bottom of the bowl.

The recipe is super simple: 10 parts sugar to 1 part matcha. Easy as pie. I’d recommend using a small measure such as a teaspoon. I made mine in tablespoons and it ended up being quite a bit of sugar. I’m sure I’ll find something delicious to use the rest for.

Green tea sugar

This springy green tea sugar is great for sprinkling over fresh fruit, or anywhere a little sweetness is needed.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 10 parts white sugar
• 1 part powdered matcha green tea

Cooking Directions

1. Whisk together sugar and matcha. Sprinkle on fresh fruit, buttered toast, or any way you use sprinkled sugar.
2. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

Of course you don’t have to sprinkle it on blackberries either. I think it would be fantastic dusted over buttered toast, as a crunchy topping for donut muffins, or swirled into a lemonade. Just for fun-sies, I went ahead and used it to rim a glass of strawberry milk. Mmmmm!

Matcha green tea is one of my very favorite flavors and I’m always looking for new ways to inject it into the foods I love. It seems every time I make a new recipe, I find myself wondering if it would work in a matcha flavor. If I’ve learned anything so far, the answer is always YES.

What would you sprinkle this green tea sugar on?

April 18, 2013 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 15 comments