Loves Lists- May

The summer winds are starting to blow off of the Mediterranean and through the streets of Tangier. Can you believe it's almost June? I sure can't. I have no clue where the time has flown. It's freakin' me out a bit.

I still haven't had much time for recipes and cooking, but really it's a good thing, because my dance stuff has been gaining some serious momentum. My new workshops that I just started last week have been full & lively, I'm assembling a team for a new dance/video project that I am producing, and I just performed in the Tangier Street Art Festival with my dance partner and it seemed to be a huge success. It's been a lot of work, but also lots and lots of payoff.

I am super excited for summer to arrive, not just for longer days of beach lounging, but because I've got some little vacations set up. As happy as I am in this city, I can feel my travel pants starting to get antsy. Perusing maps and travel blogs have reappeared as my main time-fillers. These summers winds make me want to blow away.

In the meantime, while I dream about Istanbul and Montreal, here are some things I've been lusting over lately:

May Love List

-This recipe is the perfect combination to feed my current obsession with orange flower water and my on-going need for strawberries every day.
-Love these photographs- intimate & quiet homescapes.
-I have literally shown this video to every single one of my friends who are dancers. I am just obsessed. Beautiful, twisted, haunting, and seriously impressive.
-On my to-cook-immdediately list: A fresh spring onion fritatta, grilled green onions with walnut romanesco, fried cauliflower steaks with honey + hot sauce, and this coconut noodle salad with caramelized limes.
-New music addiction. This guy too.
-You can always count on my friend Renee to have something good and chocolatey to share. Mm I want them all.
-Another one of the many dance videos I've been watching for inspiration.
-My ideal Sunday afternoon: sitting on my terrace in the sun reading this and sipping on this.
-And because everyone loves cute animals and pretty pictures.

Easiest Ever Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies

Oh my lord, where has the time gone? It's been ages since I've visited this little corner of my world and I gotta say I've missed it. 

Since we last chatted, my life has been flip flopped and turned completely on it's head. Luckily, the end result is rich with new perspectives, new friends, new experiences, new things learned.

 

Just to give you a taste of what has been going on, here's a little list of recent major events:

1. The big dance show I was choreographing for the past 4 months was finally performed! We presented the show in Tangier, Tetuan and Rabat with incredible receptions in each city. Near the end of rehearsals, I truly thought we were not going to pull it off, but in the end somehow we all pushed through. And it happened. And it was great. And I am beyond proud of my dancers.

2. My friend and I moved! I won't get into gritty details, but basically there were some complications with our old house and we were forced to find a new one. The great news is that our new apartment is in the city center and even more spacious and beautiful than the last. So we are happy and finally all settled with that.

3. I'm starting to teach more classes at a relatively new performance & studio venue in Tangier called Tabadoul. I have just begun prepping and advertising for that as well as trying to find inspiration for choreography, because after that last performance I am creatively exhausted.

4. I have another new dance project coming up that I have just started conceptualizing. It's still in it's baby stages so I'll elaborate more soon :)

Phew. So that is where I have been. Even though there's still a lot going on in my life, I feel a bit more settled and centered now than I did in the past couple weeks (thanks to my amazing friends and a certain new special someone...), which means time to get back to writing, baking, photographing, blogging. For crazy times, let's start with one of the simplest recipes I've ever made. 

These peanut butter cookies are made with literally 4 ingredients and the result is slightly chewy, perfectly crumby & rich with flavor. Make with caution- they are seriously addictive. 

Easiest Ever Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies (gluten-free)
recipe from the Food Network

makes about 2 dozen small cookies

250g creamy peanut butter
200g granulated sugar
1 egg
150g dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 375º F (190º C) and grease a baking sheet. Cream together the peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, then whisk in the egg. Form the dough into little balls and press down into disks on the sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler, stirring occasionally. Using a spoon, dip and coat half of each cookie in chocolate and place on parchment paper. Let sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened. Eat, share, enjoy.

Striped Coconut Shortbread Jamprints

My days have been especially rich lately- full of friends visiting, showing them the sights and the craziness of life in Tangier, cooking, brainstorming for new projects, and as always, dancing through the mornings, evenings, and sometimes late into the night. Dance has consumed my life recently, in the most wonderful way. If my body doesn't move in some sort of creative or challenging fashion for more than 24 hours, I get all restless and antsy. 

The thing is, though, I don't do it for the performance. I dance and choreograph for the process. I love creating something original and watching it unfold and meld before your eyes. You feel the push and pull of it, and sometimes feel the push more than the pull when things aren't going so well, but it's amazing how things always come together when you least expect them too.

I think this fascination with process ties in with my love of cooking and baking. The quiet processes of rolling out dough, melting chocolate, folding batter, each one adds to the anticipation and surprise found in the final result. These cookies especially, in the way the dough only begins to stick together after repeated kneadings and squishings. The outcome is a crumbly shortbread cookie, lightly flavored with coconut oil and sweetened by chocolate and jam. Trust the process, relish the cookie. I made these for my dear dancers and they were a happy success. 

Striped Coconut Shortbread Jamprints

vegan & gluten-free 

adapted from Redpath Sugar

makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies

50g rice flour

100g gluten-free oat flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

60g powdered sugar (we made it homemade)

3-4 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp vanilla soy or almond milk

50g dark chocolate

mixed fruit jam

Preheat your oven to 350º (175º C). Combine the flours, cornstarch, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Using your fingers, mix in 3 tbsp of coconut oil and the soy milk, kneading until it comes together in a sticky ball. If the dough is too crumbly, add the extra tbsp of coconut oil. It will take about 3-5 minutes of working it through your fingers for it to start sticking, so you know, don't lose hope. Form the dough into little balls and set them on a baking sheet, pressing down the centers with your thumb. Bake for about 10 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges. 

While the cookies cool completely, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Generously drizzle the chocolate over the cookies, let it harden for a a couple minutes, and finish up with a little scoop of fruit jelly plopped into each thumbprint center.