2018

January 10, 2019 by Britt 1 Comment

I don’t really post much here anymore, I know. I’m far more active on Instagram—stories specifically—as of late. I started writing this as an Insta post reflecting on the past year, and it ran over the character limit. Rather than go into the comments, I figured I’d make my way back here.

It’s a little bullet-pointy compared to my usual blogging style, but hey—it was intended for a different platform. Anyway, this is how my year went. It was a full one.

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Yay! A photo of me looking off into the distance again. Must be time for a year-end reflections post. (I know I’m late, but I was sick for a the first week of the year, so I get a pass.)

It’s been crazy to look back at the last year. After floundering on all my creative/professional goals after our home flooded in 2017, 2018 somehow became the year when I did all the things—things I wasn’t even planning at the outset, “if you told me this time last year I’d have done this, I wouldn’t have believed you”-type things. I had ideas and I acted on them. I asked and was told yes. I was asked and I said yes. Things that I’d always wanted to do—and some that weren’t even on my radar—happened. I’m in grateful disbelief.

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Come See Me at the 2018 Brooklyn GFFAF

July 24, 2018 by Britt Leave a Comment

The Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fest is coming to Brooklyn for the first time this weekend, July 28th and 29th. I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be giving a cooking demo on Saturday and will be there all weekend in their blogger booth as well.

This will be my first official, scheduled cooking demo (there was, of course, that one time that I went to see Victoria Moran demo a few recipes from the Main Street Vegan Academy Cookbook and got pulled in last-minute to make my Buffalo Chickpea Dip) and I’m so looking forward to it. The demo is happening on the 28th at 1pm. I’ll be making BCD and will also be making an aquafaba-based chocolate mousse. There will be samples. 😉

The fest is taking place at the Brooklyn Expo Center, which is a big, beautiful expo space in Greenpoint. There will be plenty of food vendors, several of which are veg-friendly. If you’re around, come check it out and say hi.

Tickets for the fest can be purchased here. Use code “LeavesofKale” for 20% off. Hope to see you there!

Photo: Melissa Robin Photography

I Did the Thing

May 18, 2018 by Britt 3 Comments

It happened. I did it. Last week I put on my first uprooted pop-up dinner. It was a six-course, spring-inspired menu, consisting of a handful of recipes that I’ve created over the years as well several that I crafted specifically for this event. The impetus was a moment of inspiration back in February: I could totally do this. I think this is what I want to do. Less than three months later, I made it happen.

The whole thing has felt surreal since the moment it ended and, despite still having a few straggling leftovers in the fridge, already feels like something I’m looking back at from several weeks away instead of several days.

The process of putting it together was as much personal as it was culinary or logistical—maybe more so. Once the date was set and it went from mere notion to very real thing that I’m about to do, I became filled with a sort of uneasy excitement. I remember walking home from the meeting I had with Julia—owner of Little Choc Apothecary, the venue that had agreed to host the dinner—where I’d gotten a quick tour of the kitchen and we’d decided on the date, feeling the giddy elation of holding a wonderful secret. It was real, but it wasn’t in the world just yet, which felt somewhat safe. Still, it was the sort of thing that depended on being cast into the light, on people knowing and showing up; this part was terrifying….

uprooted

May 5, 2018 by Britt Leave a Comment

Next week I’ll be putting on my first pop-up dinner. I’ve been meaning and wanting to write about it since I decided I was going to do it, but I haven’t been sure what to say. And now I’m sitting here at 6:30am on Saturday, with only a few days to go, and my mind is racing.

I’ve been terrified of all the usual things: that no one will come, that it will be awful (or, maybe worse, just meh), that I’ll disappoint everyone, including myself. I still have shades of some of these fears lurking in the back of my mind, though I’ve mostly realized that they’re not all that real and, even if they were, they don’t matter.

What matters is that I’m doing the thing. (Thanks, Michael.)

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Let’s Catch Up

March 23, 2018 by Britt 5 Comments

I recently pulled up this site to make one of my recipes (yep, I do that), and realized that it’s been well over a year since I posted here. There are so many reasons for that and so much that has happened in the interim. I would like to start writing here again, though. Maybe not as consistently as my perfectionist tendencies would hope, but certainly more often than every 17 months.

So let’s catch up a bit, shall we?

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Aquafaba by Zsu Dever: Book Review & Giveaway

October 24, 2016 by Britt 30 Comments

Bean water.

I know. Your mouth is watering, tummy rumbling, because those two words placed side-by-side evoke utter deliciousness, amiright?

No? Just me?

Well what if I said aquafaba instead? Naturally this would be accompanied by an intense, piercing gaze and a completely over-the-top, arm-waving flourish of the hands. Because aquafaba is magic. And the magician of the moment is Zsu Dever.

Not to reveal the magician’s secret, but aquafaba is, in fact, bean water. Don’t for a second think that that humble detail makes it any less wonderful, though. In case you haven’t heard, aquafaba—the water leftover from cooking beans or the liquid that comes alongside them in a can—has some remarkable properties.

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