Celine Steen's Blog, page 7

Chia on the flip side

A friendly lady called Meredith got in touch recently to see if I’d be interested in trying a few Health Warrior chia bars. I’m still relatively new to the world of chia seeds but also eager to become BFF with the stuff, so I said you betcha, please and thank you.

The Health Warrior chia bars are described as being full of fiber, protein, and Omega-3′s, as well as free of gluten and soy. And obviously, vegan. I was skeptical that those tiny little things (each bar weighs 25 g) would manage to...

Very Veluscious

Hi. Been a while. How is it going? Not bad on my end, because cookies.

Katie (from the Los Angeles-based Deluscious bakery) got in touch with me to see if I’d be interested in trying their new line of vegan cookies, punnily called Veluscious.

Considering I’m like a less cute but thankfully also less furry clone of this here individual (in both his cookie-loving ways and lack of social skills), I wasn’t going to decline.

Let me start by saying veganism gets equated with health and/or weight-loss...

C’est toi que j’aime tant

I’m usually fonder of jams/preserves that contain less sugar than Bonne Maman does, or even none at all. Not that I think sugar is evil incarnate (you know me), but because the fruit flavor comes out so much more strongly when it isn’t competing with other stuff.

Yet I cave in on occasion and buy a jar or two, mostly because I find the overall design to be so dang lovely. A very superficial reason if I ever came up with one. To be fair, it’s the jam I grew up on, so nostalgia also comes into p...

Smelling Salts

I’ve been building myself little armies of flavored salts lately. They’re so ridiculously simple to prepare, and look rather cute in their glass jars lined up on the kitchen counter.

Here’s the legend to the pictures below:

1. Smoked Paprika Salt + Shroom Salt

2. Thyme Lemon Salt

3. Shroom Salt, closer

4. Rosemary Orange Salt



If you’re a weirdo like me, you might find yourself frequently opening the jars when you walk by them, just to have a quick whiff.

These salts can be used in any savory prepar...

Vegan Cuts

I received a snack box courtesy of Vegan Cuts a month or so ago, and let me tell you we made those snacks go POOF in less time that it took me to write this post. I don’t even know what to say for myself. Snacks are a terrible thing to waste? I’m a slow writer?

If you’re new to Vegan Cuts, check this out, and you’ll be somewhat caught up. In short, they’re a vegan company that aims at letting you know all about the newest and/or greatest vegan products on the market, shipped right to your door...

Return of the Cookie King

If Chaz had to choose one cookie king to rule them all, snickerdoodles would be it. Good job, snickerdoodles. Good name too.

I had never heard of this cookie before meeting him (Chaz), but we got introduced really quickly (the cookie and me) as it became a sort of ritual for him to get one freshly-baked snickerdoodle from some bakery spot to get a semblance of life back into his body when I dragged him to the mall.

Fast forward a few years: I’ve developed a severe mall-ergy, but I’ve also grown...

Better than chocolate

I found this bittersweet baking chocolate at a grocery outlet a few weeks ago, and I think it’s too pretty not to obsess over. My eyes might be messing with me, but it seems the sweet lady is carrying mugs of hot cocoa. For me? You shouldn’t have. But hey, come back here, I’ll take one anyway.



The one below was shot when the sun was just rising (about 630-7am, the previous ones about 830am), isn’t it funny how the difference in light and angle makes the chocolate look much reddish-browner than...

Cutting loose

It’s cookbook testing time again: Tami and I have started working on recipes for a new book that will come out next year. I’m developing most of the sweet stuff for it, with a few savory dishes here and there, while Tami’s doing just the opposite. It’s been lots of fun so far since sweets and baking at large have always been my most favorite cuppa, as the blog name would indicate. I’ll bore you to tears talking about it in coming months. Not really, I’ll keep myself in check.

Since I just fin...

Dishes & Best Wishes

Oh hello. Happy new year! And all.

Do you know that lady (I use the term loosely) who should be used to patches of ice on the sidewalk because she’s from Switzerland after all, and who moved to a part of the US where there’s really not much of a winter, and who still managed to fall on a patch of ice from a spilled can of whatever, and bend her leg and ankle the way they weren’t meant to bend, and who was very grateful it happened at night? Me neither.

A copy of Annie & Dan Shannon‘s Betty Go...

Speculoos Granola and Garlic. But not together.

Since Mihl mentioned a speculoos-flavored granola in the comments for the last granola-centric post I wrote, and that several people +1′d the idea, I got motivated to tweak the gingerbread granola just a little to make it speculoos-friendly.

So without further ado…

Oh wait, I lied, just an extra pinch of ado actually: Kelly had sent me some speculoos spice mix a while back, and (IMHO) it’s the closest a spice mix has ever gotten to matching the actual cookies. Just google (and try to pronounce)...