The Creative Palate

Easy Chocolate Drops

Life is about finding balance: healthy eating and sweet indulgences, work and play, dark and light, fire and water, yin and yang, and socializing and solitude. Therefore, last week’s Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcakes must be countered with today’s chocolate recipe. High-quality dark chocolate is actually beneficial to one’s health. It is rich in antioxidants, improves cognitive…

Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcakes

It’s hard for me to understand vanilla. I mean, I understand what the flavor of vanilla is, but to me, it is just like its informal definition: boring. Just like darkness is an absence of light, vanilla is an absence of chocolate. Many chocoholics would agree with me, but I’m sure I’ve offended many vanilla…

Mediterranean Quesadilla

What’s stranger than a Frenchman overcooking a steak? An Italian making a quesadilla. Well, I’m only half Italian, but I have never made a quesadilla before. I’m probably pronouncing the word wrong in my head right now. For all of the haters who are thinking, “Haha, you don’t pronounce the Ls!” I reply, “You…

No-Mayo Mushroom Dip

I’ve been flipping through cookbooks recently, (it’s a common pastime) and it struck me how many ingredients are in each recipe. This is not some sort of epiphany; of course, it takes a lot of foods to create something unique, but sometimes it seems that there are so many ingredients, they all get lost in…

Goodbye Summer Snap Peas

Late September can mean one of two things: You are beginning to adjust to the new routine of school/work. You are wondering if you will ever adjust to it. The hardest part of an enforced schedule is at the start: waking up early. No one wants to leave a warm bed and stagger onto the…

Gluten-free Cinnamon Cereal

I conducted an intensive and official poll about handedness. Abstract Abstracts in lab papers are pure spoilers. If you want to read a study, examine the whole thing. I’m not annoying enough to spoil the ending. Introduction We encounter hundreds of people throughout our daily activities, but 10% of those around us are mutants. They…

Sunny Side Up Eggplant

How to become an adult: Step 1: Realize you have no clue what you are doing. Step 2: Realize nobody else does either. Step 3: Fake it til you make it. Step 4: Decide to buy a coffee since that seems like an adult thing to do. Step 5: Go to a coffee shop. Step…

Frozen Banana Popsicles

Take note of the title of this recipe: Popsicles, not ices. This is how I understand it: The ice lollies on sticks are called ‘Popsicles’ and the ones in a tube are ‘freezies.’ In Brooklyn, however, both seem to be under the broad term ‘ices.’ I understand the name, ice pops, ices, but I still…

3 Dairy-Free Coffee Creamers

Note: This is going to be a ‘there are two kinds of people in this world’ post. I would apologize in advance, but I am not sorry. There are two kinds of people in this world: Morning larks and night owls. Most of the world would be able to identify as one of the two,…

Lemonade Cookies

There was a strange viral headline on CBS News: “Man Trapped in ATM slips handwritten ‘please help’ notes through receipt slot.” My initial impression is that the story is ludicrous. How can a person get stuck in an ATM machine? This sounds like an incident out of a novel that critics will chastise the author for…

Maple Cinnamon Latte

Have you ever had a kid bouncing in your face, brandishing a colorful scribble for you to praise? Right now, I am that kid. Here’s why: There are certain combinations that create pure bliss. For some people, it is music, comfy shoes, and forest trail. For others, it’s a free evening, cocoa, and a good book….

Cranberry Nut Quinoa

Can we all stop saying, “I’m entitled to my opinion”? You must have heard this line before. You are in a heated debate with someone, and when he or she cannot think of another way to defend their view, they fold their arms and say, “Well, I have the right to my opinion.” If you…