Author: Sanura

Hibiscus Tea featuring “Teaspoons and Petals”

Sanura
Loose Leaf Hibiscus Tea sweetened with Cream Honey
Loose Leaf Hibiscus Tea sweetened with Cream Honey

Besides talking and thinking about food, I dream of mint, matcha, oolong, pu-erh, ginger, darjeeling, and sencha tea to name only a few. Similar to my passion for rediscovering and developing classic recipes with real ingredients, I am curious about the origin tea. It started with purchasing inexpensive green tea bags in Chinatown. Over a few weeks, my complexion cleared. A friend would later tell me how green tea detoxes the blood. My interest in tea starts out of vanity, and it expands into how different teas benefit our health.

Across the blog universe, I discovered Alexis Siemon’s Teaspoons & Petals. Her writing is poetic and quaint. Reading her blog is similar to taking a tea break in a whirlwind of a busy day. My knowledge about tea skims the surface, but her passion for tea is deep. I invited Alexis to write a guest post, and she provided a collage of beautiful teapots. Read more →

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Sanura

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

My Shamrock Wine Plant gifted my apartment a beautiful gift. It blossomed tiny white and lavender flowers in the middle of a winter snowstorm, a few weeks shy of Spring. It’s been flowering ever since. Maybe in a few days, I’ll start seeing crocuses peering out from the leftover snow. Snow once glistening pretty, now gritty and soiled. It’s melting away, but perhaps more snow will arrive. This is New York after all because it still snows in April.

I’m pretty excited with anticipation. It was an emotionally harsh Winter, but the energy in the air is changing. Perhaps it’s for the better. It’s been a while since I’ve hoped, dreamed, and fantasized about the near future. However, these changes will not start unless I put in the work. March is looking quite industrious. Let’s hope it pays off. Read more →

Cornmeal Lime Cookies

Sanura

Cornmeal Lime Cookies

Butter makes the world go round. Flavors swirl happily in it. We worship it. It’s a bit disheartening to see recipes using butter-flavored substitutes. It’s a marketing ploy to get people to eat healthy. Butter, another ingredient enjoyed for thousands of years, has been bullied into an unhealthy label. Guess what? Those butter-flavored substitutes are processed, artificial concoctions. Please serve the healthy and real dairy from the almighty golden cow (or goat). Besides, the health benefits of using real ingredients far exceed processed food. Read more →

Radicchio and Pear Salad

Sanura

A sweet and savory Winter salad.

Winter’s Radicchio leaves and firm Bosc pears create a jewel of a salad lovingly enjoyed during the last few weeks of winter. Spring Equinox is about a month away. Piles of snow are melting, but let’s not rejoice too early. After a few years of living in New York, I’m not convinced the last of the snowstorms are finally in the past. It’s a bittersweet time of year full of warm anticipation, but snow flurries appear in April, too.

Most red and purple hued vegetables are honestly sweet. Au contraire for the reddish- purple and white leaves of radicchio, for it has a fresh bitter bite. Good looks fool most people. On occasion, I take advantage of radicchio’s bitter taste to fill it with generous spoonfuls of pungent blue cheese and toast walnuts. It’s an addictive snack. The strong flavors combined mellow into an honest, sweet taste. Read more →

Chocolate Chip Yogurt Cookies

Sanura

Chocolate Chip Yogurt Cookies with a Glass of Milk

A few months ago, a representative from Chobani contacted My Life Runs On Food about the amount of yogurt in my recipes. She enjoyed reading about the Orange Cornbread with Greek Yogurt and Blackberry Sauce and offered to ship a large box of any of their 11 flavors. Until her email was read, I was unaware of the amount of yogurt in my recipes. It’s not an ingredient associated with childhood memories. Today, a large container of 2% or whole milk, unsweetened yogurt is in my refrigerator. The unsweetened and plain flavor provides versatility for spontaneous cooking. It’s used in salad dressings, as a simple topping for Mexican-inspired dishes, and biscuits. In my favorite breakfast cereal of late, unsweetened yogurt is mixed with cream honey, chopped pears, granola, and toast pecans. Greek yogurt has unknowingly become a pantry staple. It was missed, especially after the first big and surprise blizzard of the season. Afterwards, I learned to maintain a full pantry of the basics: Flour, butter, dark maple syrup, eggs, both cow and almond milk, vanilla, and bittersweet chocolate. It’s not fun to wake up after a snowstorm to an empty refrigerator. It’s realized, most stores in New York open regardless of the weather, but who wants to walk through snow in the mornings? It’s best to hide under the covers for a few extra hours. Read more →