Our little food competition is tomorrow. The Florida Keys Green Living & Energy Education group is hosting a healthy "finger food" competition. Its to celebrate Earth Day, and raise funds for Keys GLEE. The event is informal, at a bar & lounge (never forget, this IS the Keys!) Some friends are going too. I have no idea who's competing, or what they're entering. I registered, and for the last week or so I've been testing recipes, and creating my own. I'm going a little early because they're having African drumming at the lounge before the event starts (Food Network has nothing on the Keys when it comes to food challenges. If you think you'll ever see "Challenge" at a bar with African drumming, think again).
I've spent a fair amount of time on my recipes. The point is to use local, sustainable & healthy ingredients. I think I've got a lock on this.
One of my three entries is a raw, organic vegan key lime pie mini-tartlet. I used a recipe for the crust out of a raw book, and created my own filling recipe. I tried just about every raw key lime pie filling recipe I could find in my books, on line, on web sites, everywhere. They all sucked, sorry, they just weren't for me. Part of the problem is I am not a "lime" fan. That's a story not to be spoken of though, at least on this blog. Another issue is that never in my entire life have I tasted non-vegan key lime pie. So, I played around with recipes a lot, I mean A LOT. I've got Key West avocados in there, Florida blueberries topping the tartlet with my whole vanilla bean cashew cream, and drum roll please.... organic key limes fresh from Big Pine Key. Yes, my friend B came through, and came through big. For the last week or so, it was like I was searching for illegal substances or something; everywhere I went, everyone I saw, I asked "do you have any key limes growing in your garden? I'll pay anything!" Beg, borrow or steal, I needed key limes, and I needed them bad. Here's the rub; its not key lime season.
One friend told me to beat my key lime tree, I'm serious about that. Apparently when you beat a key lime tree with a 2x4, it goes into shock, will flower quickly, and bear fruit. Well, this Happy Vegan just couldn't bring herself to treat my tree naughty like that, no, I couldn't do it. Instead, I went everywhere I could think of, asked everyone I knew, even strangers for that matter. No one had any. Of course you can go to any supermarket down here and buy a bag of key limes. But, I swear, they're not key limes. They're not yellow, they're not juicy, and more importantly the are NOT local, nor are they EVER even from this country, they all come from Mexico. Oh not, that is not for me. Never, no way.
So, after perfecting my raw organic vegan key lime filling I was just about to give up on the local limes, but today, yup, about 4pm to be exact, my friend B called me up and said she had a bag for me, and was dropping it at Good Food, gratis. I dashed into the store on my way to the gym, yes, there they were in all their glory, Big Pine Key key limes
Out of my 3 options, the begging worked. B is going to get a really nice and big home made (organic! fair trade!) sweets box delivered to her from me this weekend. Keys people look out for each other. B looked out for me. Sweet B, yup, thanks to her, the competition is a lock. Well, maybe not, but still, I've sure got a leg up over anyone else on the key limes. Truth be told, I'm just looking forward to hanging out with a great bunch of people, happy to be out of the kitchen. I sure would like that ribbon though.
I've spent a fair amount of time on my recipes. The point is to use local, sustainable & healthy ingredients. I think I've got a lock on this.
One of my three entries is a raw, organic vegan key lime pie mini-tartlet. I used a recipe for the crust out of a raw book, and created my own filling recipe. I tried just about every raw key lime pie filling recipe I could find in my books, on line, on web sites, everywhere. They all sucked, sorry, they just weren't for me. Part of the problem is I am not a "lime" fan. That's a story not to be spoken of though, at least on this blog. Another issue is that never in my entire life have I tasted non-vegan key lime pie. So, I played around with recipes a lot, I mean A LOT. I've got Key West avocados in there, Florida blueberries topping the tartlet with my whole vanilla bean cashew cream, and drum roll please.... organic key limes fresh from Big Pine Key. Yes, my friend B came through, and came through big. For the last week or so, it was like I was searching for illegal substances or something; everywhere I went, everyone I saw, I asked "do you have any key limes growing in your garden? I'll pay anything!" Beg, borrow or steal, I needed key limes, and I needed them bad. Here's the rub; its not key lime season.
One friend told me to beat my key lime tree, I'm serious about that. Apparently when you beat a key lime tree with a 2x4, it goes into shock, will flower quickly, and bear fruit. Well, this Happy Vegan just couldn't bring herself to treat my tree naughty like that, no, I couldn't do it. Instead, I went everywhere I could think of, asked everyone I knew, even strangers for that matter. No one had any. Of course you can go to any supermarket down here and buy a bag of key limes. But, I swear, they're not key limes. They're not yellow, they're not juicy, and more importantly the are NOT local, nor are they EVER even from this country, they all come from Mexico. Oh not, that is not for me. Never, no way.
So, after perfecting my raw organic vegan key lime filling I was just about to give up on the local limes, but today, yup, about 4pm to be exact, my friend B called me up and said she had a bag for me, and was dropping it at Good Food, gratis. I dashed into the store on my way to the gym, yes, there they were in all their glory, Big Pine Key key limes
Out of my 3 options, the begging worked. B is going to get a really nice and big home made (organic! fair trade!) sweets box delivered to her from me this weekend. Keys people look out for each other. B looked out for me. Sweet B, yup, thanks to her, the competition is a lock. Well, maybe not, but still, I've sure got a leg up over anyone else on the key limes. Truth be told, I'm just looking forward to hanging out with a great bunch of people, happy to be out of the kitchen. I sure would like that ribbon though.
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