Month: May 2020

The Island Bee is sorely missed. The vegan café and market that was here on the island of Palm Beach, was an offshoot of The Bee in West Palm, a lifestyle space to support healthy habits. Both locations were creative, fun, and welcoming, with terrific food, nourishing shakes, healthful juices, and healing elixirs. Especially now, during the pandemic, my family and I are craving The Bee’s healthful offerings—there was and is nothing like it for miles. 

Both locations were on my daily route and I looked forward to stopping in. It was a great place to meet friends and family for an organic, vegan breakfast or lunch, and I loved going by in the afternoon for a Funky Buzz—a healthful coffee and cacao pick-me-up.  What made the Funky Buzz so delicious? The cold-brewed coffee. Cold brew tends to be less acidic than hot brewed coffee, and it’s sweeter and milder. If you like coffee, then you will love how flavorful and aromatic a cold brew can be.

When the Island Bee closed, a friend of mine gifted me a beautiful Yama Glass Cold Brew Coffee Maker for Christmas so that I could make the Funky Buzz at home. Made of hand-blown glass and a beautiful wood tower, the Yama has been sitting in my kitchen to be enjoyed more for its artistic presentation than it’s lab-like functionality—which landed it on Forbes Finds’ 2019 list of best cold-brew coffee makers.  

It looks like a complicated apparatus, and for the longest time I could not find a coffee worthy of the effort; after all it is an 8-hour process with the Yama. Recently my husband discovered Chik Monk coffee at Amici Market, and has been making us the most fabulous nut-milk cappuccinos. When he grinds the coffee in the morning everyone in the house is immediately drawn to the kitchen. The aroma inspired me to clean the Yama, learn how to use it (which is not complicated at all!) and start brewing. My daughter, Gigi, who also loved this smoothie helped me create our version of The Bee’s Funky Buzz, and it is as delicious a pick-me-up as we remember.  

The most popular way to make cold-brew coffee without a specialized carafe is the immersion method. This involves pouring coarse grounds in a glass mason jar, filling it with water and letting it sit overnight, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator. After it has infused, you then pour it through a filter to clean out the grounds. According to Food52, the optimal cold brew coffee ratio is 3/4 cup coarsely ground coffee to every four cups of cold water.

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Yield: Serves 2

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 minutes

When Florida Grapefruit is at its sweetest, from January through May, my favorite way to enjoy it is to simply slice it in half, cover the cut sides with orange blossom honey and wheat germ, and dig in with a serrated grapefruit spoon—once I’ve enjoyed all the fruit, I raise the emptied shell to my lips to drink any remaining juice. With only 80 calories, fiber and no fat or cholesterol, I often eat both halves. 

Broiled grapefruit is a deliciously addicting way to enjoy the fruit when it is a bit tarter. It is much like eating a crème brûlée, only the hot caramelized topping gives way to cool, tart-sweet segments of citrus fruit rather than a chilled custard.  The best broiled grapefruits have a lustrous caramelized topping covering sections of the warm, juicy citrus. 

This recipe has a little ginger and cinnamon, adding a warming fragrance, along with a touch of sea salt creating a lovely balance of sweet, salty, and bitter, that will have you craving this dish often. While any grapefruit will work in this recipe, Star Ruby and Pink Grapefruits make for the loveliest presentation.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a crème brûlée with a dollop of cream then you will want to add a dollop of Greek Yogurt and Honey to the center of your broiled grapefruit—this option elevates both the presentation and the flavor profile.

As a note of caution, some medications interact with fresh grapefruit and grapefruit juice. To find out about specific medications, ask your doctor.

Yield: Serves 4

Main course salads are a refreshing change for an easy meal. My family has become accustomed to gourmet 3-course meals, and after 60 days of cooking, I needed to add something easy to my repertoire: easy, healthful, delicious, and satisfying.

Miso is considered a superfood because it is packed with healthy probiotics and vitamin B12, and we love the umami flavor it imparts on any dish. The warm broccoli soaks in the miso flavor creating a light but savory and satisfying dish.  The quinoa is protein-rich and filling. Cook the quinoa in a flavorful vegetable broth to give this salad an extra boost of flavor.  

This is truly a healthful, deliciously satisfying, and beautiful main course salad.  

Yield: Serves 4

With a subtle but noticeable olive oil flavor and a hint of orange, this cake has become my family’s new favorite, and I will be making it again, and again. The olive oil gives it a pleasant fruity flavor while keeping the cake moister for longer than butter ever could. My husband loves the idea of a tender cake sans butter and nearly devoured the entire cake the first time I made it. Even die-hard butter devotees admit this is an exceptional cake.

Thank you to my friend and author, Lise Arin, who shared this recipe with me. She pulled it out of a magazine back in 2013! Her husband, a fabulous cook, usually resists menu suggestions, but in the time of COVID and a mere 7 years later, he acquiesced, and we are so happy he did. 

I barely changed the recipe, adding a wonderful nut milk to replace the dairy and a bit of orange zest. This is truly a great recipe—a simple, orange-scented olive oil cake that is an elegant treat for family and guests alike. 

Yield: Makes 1 9-inch cake