Hot Chocolate - Dairy Free

I was going in circles in the kitchen looking for something to perk me up. I wasn't hungry, I didn't want coffee, I just needed something to pick me up. Husband suggested hot chocolate. I said, "We haven't got any milk." But then I realized I had some coconut milk in the pantry, and thought, "Yum!" So:

I put the can of coconut milk in a saucepan, along with an equal amount of filtered water, and set it to heating. I added a tsp of dolomite powder for calcium, simply because I had it on hand and it's a part of the Nourishing Traditions "Coconut Milk Tonic" recipe. I whisked it to dissolve the dolomite powder. I added a half cup of good quality dark chocolate chips (60% cocoa Ghirardelli, I had left over from the holidays) and whisked to melt & incorporate. I poured a little into a cup & tasted it. It wasn't quite sweet enough, so I added about another 1/4 cup of chocolate chips & whisked. I tasted and it was sweet enough, but it lacked body. So I added two tablespoons of coconut oil. Then I thought, "Oh, you know what it needs? Vanilla!" So I went to the spice cabinet to get out the vanilla extract & saw the almond extract - "Ooooh! Even better!" I put in about 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract & stirred it in, and a generous pinch (1/8 tsp?) of good quality Portuguese sea salt. I whisked, tasted, and declared it *delicious*! Now it was actually a little *too* sweet, so next time I'll cut back on the chocolate & see how it is. 

All that being said, here is the recipe:

Super-Rich, Indulgent, Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate

1 14-oz can Organic Coconut Milk (full fat) (Get organic because the regular has sulfur dioxide)

filtered water (use the empty coconut milk can to measure an equal quantity)

1 tsp dolomite powder (for calcium, optional) 

1/2 cup good quality chocolate chips or pieces, preferably free of soy lecithin, but this is hard to find. 

2 T coconut oil

1/4 tsp almond extract

generous pinch good quality unrefined sea salt

Put all ingredients in a saucepan & heat over medium heat, whisking to combine. When all is mixed and warm, ladle into small mugs and serve! This is extremely rich, so I don't recommend a serving larger than about 8 ounces. 

Enjoy! 

Watermelon Sorbet

So I wanted to do something with this enormous watermelon I got, besides eating it in chunks and/or juicing it. There is only so much watermelon you can eat, or drink. I've always thought it would be nice to freeze watermelon pulp in the ice cream freezer, but I wasn't sure how it would come out. Actually, as I'm typing this, I'm still not sure how it will come out, but I'll let you know! I went over to Epicurious and researched some recipes, and as usual, came up with my own version. So here's what I did:

Put about 1/4 cup water in a small bowl, and sprinkle 1 envelope unflavored gelatin over it. Leave to soften.

Put 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar in a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar is dissolved. Pour the sugar syrup into the softened gelatin and stir for a while to be sure all the gelatin is dissolved. Leave on counter to cool.

Put your watermelon in the sink, rinse it off, and cut it in half (mine didn't actually fit in the sink, but the halves did. You can cut it lengthwise or the short way to get the pulp, it doesn't matter. Put your blender right next to the sink, and scoop watermelon flesh, seeds and all, into the blender. Whirl the flesh, on low speed, until it's all pulp and seeds. On low speed, it won't cut up the seeds. Strain the pulp through a colander (not a strainer - a colander with round holes is best) to remove the seeds.

Measure 4 cups watermelon puree into a half-gallon pitcher. Mix in 2 tablespoons limoncello liqueur, and then the cooled gelatin mixture. Place the pitcher in the refrigerator to chill. If you don't have limoncello, you can use fresh lemon juice and perhaps some vodka. The alcohol is intended to keep it from freezing solid once the sorbet is made, but it's optional.

When the mixture is cold, process in your ice cream freezer, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

You will likely have a lot more watermelon puree than you'll need. I like to strain the rest through a strainer (a fine sieve for this second straining), and keep the juice. It's sweet, an AMAZING red color (like Hawaiian Punch, seriously, but all natural!), and it mixes very nicely with vodka! I'm sure that like all juices, the sugar is way too isolated to be healthy, but hey, it's a once-a-summer indulgence.

Now, I'm currently at the "chilling the mixture" stage. It tasted pretty good, but the big question is, how will it freeze up? Last time I used my little ice cream freezer (eggless gelatin ice cream), I didn't get the gelatin all the way dissolved (cream wasn't hot enough) and I didn't chill the mixture before putting it into the ice cream freezer. So I'm hoping these two steps will help. Since watermelon is so sweet to begin with, I added the gelatin, to help with the texture without overdoing the sugar.

Once it's frozen, I'll update with results!

Update One: Once the ice cream freezer had pretty much done its job, I scooped the sorbet into a container and put it in the freezer. Later that night, I mixed it up a little - the inside was still soft, outsides beginning to get hard. Scooped some out and ate it - the texture was silky, the color deep pinkish red, and the flavor was wonderful - sweet, with a limoncello aftertaste. I think the silky texture is from the gelatin, so I was pleased with this addition.

Update Two: The next day, it was frozen pretty much solid. I tried to scoop some, and ended up scraping it up into the ice cream scoop, which has a very useful thin aluminum edge. I found myself wishing I'd smoothed the top of the sorbet before I put it back into the freezer the night before; it would have made the scraping easier. Since it was icier, from being frozen and scraped like a granita, it came out a much lighter color, a lovely lighter pink. It was still sweet and delicious, and actually the limoncello overtones had calmed down, which was good.

Conclusion: I declare the watermelon-limoncello sorbet a rousing success! Something I've always wanted to try, and it came out great. Go me! ;-)

Addicted??

So this morning, my coffepot is set to go off at 8:00 a.m., and the alarm clock next to the bed at 8:05. I've raved about the coffeepot before - but it's the best coffepot *ever* ! You put in the beans and water, and set the timer. In the morning, you wake up smiling to the sound of the grinder going off downstairs. In 5 or 10 minutes, there is fresh coffee!

[OMG!! I just went to Melitta.com to find the link to the coffeemaker, and they don't have it listed anymore! Crisis! I was just about to buy a new one, too, becuase some parts are broken on our well-loved one!]

Anyway. I woke up about 6:30, and soon after, the dog barked at the back door to go out. And boy, did she need to... Business accomplished, I let her back in, and headed back to bed. Hm. It's 7:00, alarm set for 8:00, maybe I should just stay up. But I was still sleepy. So, I went back to sleep, even though there would not be enough time for a full sleep cycle & I might be groggy when the alarm went off. I don't know if you do this, but when I nap or fall back asleep like this, I have crazy dreams.

So, I dreamed one of those crazy dreams: I'm in a house that is four stories tall. I'm in the basement/ground floor, in bed, just waking up and, as I recall, petting my dog. There are other people in the house, but they are all already up. I decide it's time for some coffee & pad into the kitchen, to find that the coffepot has gone off, but someone removed the carafe, so the hot coffee & grounds are spilling out of the filter basket and making a huge mess! I'm frustrated and angry and I start yelling, "WHO MOVED THE COFFEEPOT?!?!?!!!" and I start up the stairs to yell at the other people in the house. I finally find them all in the top (fourth) floor, just sitting around reading and being sociable. Husband is there, and our BFF Theo, and a couple other people. One of them was a blonde chick that I didn't like. I think she was based on this cousin of mine, who I like just fine, so, Sorry, Cousin! Anyway, I get to the top of the stairs and I'm screaming bloody murder, "WHO MOVED THE COFFEEPOT?!?!?!!!" and of course, they all just looked at me like I was completely insane, which of course, I was. They were entirely mystified about why I was so upset and screaming. So I head back downstairs to the kitchen to clean up the mess and make a new pot of coffee. I was calming down a bit and thinking, "okay, it's a mess, but it's not that big of a deal, I just need to rinse all the stuff off and make a new pot. It's going to be okay."

And then I heard the coffeepot go off downstairs.

Which confused the heck out of me for a second, I mean, I was just headed to make coffee, right? And then I realized, the mess was just a dream, and that was my real coffee going off, and would be ready for me to drink in 5 minutes or so. Such a wave of relief washed over me! And then I thought, oh my, I am SO addicted to my coffee!!!

Homemade "Gatorade"

So, I've read a couple of places that a beverage with a little bit of sugar in it actually hydrates your tissues better than plain water. One book recommends creating a "hydrating beverage" by putting a teaspoon of maple syrup in 8 oz water, or 2 oz fruit juice to 6 oz water. My own version is to take a half-liter bottle of water, drink a couple ounces of it, add juice to top up, and shake to mix.

Recently Husband got to drinking Gatorade and of course found it to be more refreshing than water alone. But it contains glycerol ester of wood rosin and an awful lot of refined sugar. I think the main thing that makes Gatorade what it is is a small sodium content, to help replace what you sweat out during exercise. So, I calculated how much salt was needed to make my "hydrating beverage" above comparable in sodium content, and it's 1/8 tsp, or a good-sized pinch.

So, I suppose the recipe would go like this:

14 ounces spring or filtered water
2 ounces fruit juice (I'm particulary fond of a blueberry blend)
1/8 tsp celtic sea salt (this has natural minerals in addition to the sodium)

Mix and be refreshed!