Asparagus and chocolate thumbprint cookies

There is nothing more relaxing (maybe I'm exagerating) than coming home from work and be in the garden until dark and cook dinner.  Completing both activities everyday are part of my peace therapy, away from things that make me feel rushed, hustled and worried. I have been talking in my sleep and turning on the light to say random stuff in Spanish.  Sometimes I remember what I have said and sometimes I don't.  I definitely want to be out of school.

Anyway, this week I made pizza with local ingredients including local wheat flour.  I made the dough (just all purpose flour) on Monday and by the time I came to prepare the dough for pizza on Thursday, it had turn into a sourdough. So, I did not pacnic because I know that if you add yeast, water, flour and salt, then you can have the dough be less of a sourdough.  That is exactly what I did, added 1 Tbsp of yeast, 1/2 Tbsp of salt, a cup of warm water and maybe 1 cup and a half of whole wheat flour. The dough was still wet, so I added barley flour just to play with the flavors, I might have added 1/2 cup. Then, I let it sit for maybe 1 hour while I prepared the ingredients.

I decided to roll the pizza on to the parchment paper sprinkled with local coarse corn meal. Then, this is where I start to get creative with the toppings.

I prepared the following :

Fiddleheads sauteed on the stove top with local sunflower oil, then added tahini, nutritional yeast, rice vinegar, mixed salt, lemon juice, nutmeg and braggs aminos sauce.

Our own grown Asparagus cut in slices with mandolin. Local cheese, local spinach , olives, our own garlic, scallions and yellow onions.

Needless to say, the pizza was delicious as so were the other two vegan ones that I made with : local tofu sauteed with tumeric, basil, oregano, caraway seeds, mirin and salt, plus the other ingredients above and tomato sauce.

I usually have enough time to make dessert after dinner some times, but not lately.  So, the night after making the delicious pizza, I decided to make cookies.  I could not find a chocolate chip cookie recipe, instead I found a chocolate thumbprint vegan recipe that was amazing.  Here is the recipe:

Chocolate thumbprint cookies Ladeau style 

adapted from Vegan With A Vengeance

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/3 cup of sunflower oil 

1/3 cup of soy milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2/3 cup sugar 

chocolate chips 

sheredded coconut

almond butter and peanut butter

1) Preheat oven to 350 F, line cookie sheets or pizza stone with parchment paper

2) Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.

3) In bowl mix oil, milk, extract and sugar

4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and incorporate well

5) With damp hands, roll one tablespoon of dough into ball and press between your plams into a disk, then place on parchment paper

6) Bake for 5 minutes, the remove from oven, press your thumb into each cookie carefully not to burn yourself

7) Add chocolate chips and shredded coconut in each indentation and bake for another 6 minutes

8) Remove from the oven and place in a cooling rack 

9) Once cooled, add a teaspoon of almond butter or peanut butter and ENJOY !

These cookies came out amazing and even tasted better the next day ! You have to give them a try !!!