Gluten-Free Pumpkin Poppers

This is one of those "only via the Internet" stories. A friend on Facebook posted about making these poppers, with a link to where she'd pinned the recipe on Pinterest. That, of course, had been pinned by several other people - I don't "do" Pinterest, so I couldn't quite trace the path. Not that it matters. Clicking on the pinned recipe took me to a blog that posted the recipe, which that blogger had gotten from someone *else's* blog... I took a look at it, and immediately adapted it in my head to be gluten-free. A few days later, I tried out my adaptation, and if I do say so myself, they're PERFECT! So, without further ado, here is a delicious, sugary recipe, adapted to be gluten-free and nourishing, if still a bit sugary!

Pumpkin Poppers

1/2 cup coconut flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup milk, cream, or coconut milk

For Coating - optional

4oz butter or ghee, melted

2/3 cup turbinado sugar

2 tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin tins with coconut oil spray.

Combine coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, mix coconut oil, coconut  sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk. Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fill mini muffin tins until almost full and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean. 

If using coating: Melt butter in small bowl.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl. After poppers cool for a few minutes, dip them in the butter and roll them in the sugar mixture - either the whole popper, or just the top for a bit less sweet! 

Taking Stock

Bone broths - otherwise known as stocks - are one of the most nutritious and healing substances on the planet, not to mention *delicious* and the foundation of most cuisine. My wonderful cousin provided me with some packages of meaty soup bones from her brother (also my wonderful cousin, natch!) and I made stock from them. The journey of this particular batch of stock seemed noteworthy, so I've written about it.

- One day, I took the soup bone package out of the freezer and put the wrapped package on a plate in the fridge to thaw slowly and safely.

- A couple (few?) days later, I got out the thawed bones & rinsed them off. I oiled the roasting pan with coconut oil, threw in the soup bones and a couple of onions, quartered, and roasted them in the oven for about 30m or so, flipping them over halfway through. I dumped all into a stock pot, covered with water, added a few herbs (thyme, rosemary, ??), and a couple of good splashes of raw apple cider vinegar, and let it all simmer overnight. The vinegar is important to help the stock leach the good minerals from the bones and make them available to your body.

- The next morning, I turned it off & let it cool. Later that day, I strained it through a colander & pulled out the meat pieces and set them aside (in a container in the fridge). I strained the stock through a mesh strainer & put the bowl into the fridge for the fat to congeal. The bones went to the very happy dogs!

- The next day (or so, LOL) I fished the congealed fat off the top, and decanted the stock into pint jars. Labelled, and back into the fridge they went. (I saved the fat & added it to the dogs' food that night.)

- Another day, I put 1 1/2 pints of stock into a pot, added the reserved meat, some salt, and called it soup. However, the meat was way too dry to eat, so I ended up just drinking the stock, and put the meat back into the fridge.

- Another day, I put the meat, broken up into little pieces, into the rice cooker. I added a very small onion, chopped; 3/4 cup short grain brown rice; 2 cups beef broth; 1/4 cup water. Threw in some salt & herbs, and set it to cooking. When it was done, I thawed a couple cups of frozen peas under running water, put them in a bowl, and dumped the rice on top. To this mix I added a few T butter. We had a little bit of this left over, so into the fridge it went.

- Today, I took the little bit of leftover rice, meat, & peas, and put them in a pot with another jar (pint) of the original stock, hotted it up, added ample salt and a couple T of butter, and called it soup. This time, the soup was good!

- I still have two pints of beef stock in the fridge for future use. A long way from just one package of soup bones!

Saturday Adventures!

I had a little adventure yesterday morning.

I got up, got my coffee and breakfast, got the laundry started, got dressed, and headed out to the Farmer's Market. My main agenda was to get some meat from the pasture-raised beef people. They are not at our FM every week, so it was important to get there. After the FM, I was going to go to my church knitting group (I started a small project 18 months ago and still haven't finished it!), and then in the afternoon a friend or two were coming over to start some lactoferments.

Occasionally when we put the key into our car's ignition, it just spins, and doesn't "catch" to crank the engine. This is usually fixed by taking the key out, turning it over, reinserting it, and trying again. Yesterday I put the key in, it spun a bit, but then it caught. It was unusual for it to do that, but the car started just fine, and off I went. I was listening to Car Talk as I drove, and when I got to the FM, I stopped the car, but left it running while I put up the window shade (heat index 104 yesterday!), got my cash in my pocket, stowed my purse, and listened to the tail end of Car Talk.

The program ended, and I went to turn off the car, and the key would. not. budge. In either direction! Wait, that's not true, it wouldn't turn. It would move - it easily pulled right out of the ignition!

There I sat, engine running, key in hand - going, "Um, this is NOT good!"

I was pretty close to our mechanic's shop, and I've been using them long enough to know that they are usually there on Saturday mornings, but being officially "closed", they won't answer the telephone. So, I took down the sun shade, put my seatbelt back on, and drove away to the shop. Thankfully, they were in. The mechanic worked on it, but was also unable to get it to turn off, so he drove it into a bay, and disconnected the battery cable. But of course, once the car is running, it's not running off the battery, so it didn't kill the engine. He finally got it to stop by pulling the fuse to the fuel pump, and it petered out. We were all laughing and shaking our heads.

I called The Daughter to come and get me, which she very kindly did, and we went off back to the Farmer's Market and the natural food store, and back to my house. Thank goodness we recently had our truck fixed up, air conditioning and all!

Needless to say, I didn't make it to the knitting group. Which is really too bad, as I'd hoped to *finally* finish the small project in time for the intended recipient's birthday on Wednesday!

However, my friend Justin did come over as planned, and we started 4 quarts/flavors of kombucha, 4 pint jars of pickle spears, and 3 jars of sauerkraut! I also made some cabbage sauteed with bacon and onions.YUM. And managed to feed us a spot of lunch AND dinner in there, and of course cleaned up & got the dishwasher running. I was exhausted and my feet were killing me when we were done, but so happy to get all that done! It's so much more fun cooking with someone else. Justin and I seem to collaborate well, so that was fun. Maybe Justin is used to that, since he works in commercial kitchens. Husband and I cook together all the time - but usually not working on the same recipe. For example, he grills the steaks and I fix the vegetables, or something like that. So working with someone else on the same recipe was a different sort of adventure!

Why I decided to write this post before showering and getting dressed to go to church, I can't tell you (Procrastination Queen, that's me!), but if I don't get that done NOW I'm going to miss church, and that's just not an option! See y'all!

Mission. Slowly Forming.

I'm sensing a new mission in life slowly forming. I'm no gourmet cook, but I have friends who are amazed that I cook at all, because they don't. I feel like I could teach them some basic skills to feed themselves and their families better. And I'm reading more and learning more all the time about Traditional Food, and wanting to spread that "gospel". So I'm thinking about how to do those things.

The very first thing I *must* do is find a class, or someone to teach me, basic knife skills. My knife skills stink. I know Sur La Table has them, but that's a day trip, and not too cheap. And they seem to be always full/waitlisted. But perhaps I could get a local chef friend, or my aunt the chef, or even my brother to come over and teach a class for me & some friends.

At a Celtic Spirituality workshop this summer, I created the attached "Cook's Prayer". It sort of sums up my approach to food these days:

-----
Cook's Prayer
Bless me in the preparation of food for myself and my family.
Thank you for your bounty. Thank you for the knife that prepares it.
Let the preparation and eating of your bounty reflect the way you nurture our souls.
Bless the healing of our bodies through the bounty of your earth.
-----
 
Food isn't merely sustenance, or pleasure, or comfort, although it is definitely those things as well, but it is primarily health-giving, life-giving, and healing. When processed non-foods are eaten, they are not merely filling or neutral, they are actively harming the body. It never, ever, boils down to simple calories. What you put in your mouth is either giving you health and healing, or it is harming you. Period.

As time goes on, I'll be cogitating about what I need to do and how to go about doing it. I'm sure you'll "hear" about it here!

Happy New Year 2010!

Yesterday was Epiphany, which means that Christmas is officially over. That makes today my New Year's Day! Today we will take down the Christmas decorations, and start back on The McCombs Plan. Actually, it may take us a couple more days to fully rejoin the plan, as we have a lot of dairy in the fridge to use up yet. I am so looking forward to feeling great again! I had so much energy when we were on the plan before, and while I'm not as draggy as I was before it, after all the holiday food, I'm definitely not where I want to be.

Last night at the Epiphany service, Father John had a table with a nativity scene and candles in front of the altar. He told us that he would serve communion off to the side, so that each of us could stop by the Nativity on our way to take communion. He suggested that we study the baby Jesus, and think about what we have to offer him in this new year. I got to thinking about that, and realized that I don't know what I have to offer this year, to church, personally, or professionally. So my prayer as I reached the altar/nativity was to figure out what I will do with 2010.

I'm not really teaching Pilates anymore, although I have had a few requests to teach a class, perhaps at the church. I'm doing my voiceover work, but that's 30 minutes a day, every three weeks. I've thought about getting a job of any sort, but that would hinder our ability to up & travel, which we like to do fairly often.

I really enjoyed what I did through the holidays: I made lists and did a lot of cooking, taking photographs and writing about each recipe as I made it. Everybody seemed so amazed that I made everything myself. Sad, really! And they were only standard recipes, like bread made with yeast & all purpose flour, not even soaked or sprouted or anything.

I'm getting more and more into trying to eat a more "traditional" diet, experiencing and reading about all the health benefits of doing so. I don't feel like I'm advanced enough in that to really start a blog about it yet, though, a la Nourishing Gourmet or Cheeseslave. I will probably blog about it here anyway, as it helps me clarify my thinking to write about it. And maybe someone will find my own babysteps in that direction instructive.

Cooking and photographing and blogging may be fun for me, but I will also need something that gets me out of the house and with people on a regular basis. Husband travels for a living, and is gone for anywhere from 3 to 10 days at a time. I'm WAY too extraverted to just be at home with the dogs for days on end.

In that vein: as I do seem to be something of a hausfrau these days, one of my resolutions is to be a better one. When Husband is home, we like to just enjoy each other's company, so I try to do the cleaning and organizing while he's gone. I'm going to work on being better at doing the FlyLady system. It really helps me to stay on top of things. Interestingly, it's quite similar to a system I worked out on my own a couple of different times in my life when I was very organized!

Also on the personal improvement side of things, I want to get back into going to yoga and ballet classes to work on my balance and flexibility. There are adult yoga & ballet classes very close to my house, almost walking distance, so it's completely ridiculous that I haven't been going. I also got my bicycle fixed up about a year ago, then never got on it. After my knee surgery, I begged and begged to be allowed to ride it, and still haven't. *Sigh*. So that's another thing I could work on. Heck, I could ride the bike to the yoga classes...

As far as professionally, I could work on getting together a voice resume to try to do more voiceover work, which I quite enjoy.

I love to sing. I was working on getting together a cabaret act, but my accompanist is in Chicago, which makes that pretty hard to do! I would like to get back into voice lessons to improve my singing; breath control in particular. For that matter I would like to take some acting lessons. I don't think I've ever had an actual acting lesson in my life, and I do love doing community theatre. There are a couple of shows coming up later this spring that I'll audition for, so that will be fun.

Husband just reminded me that I've always wanted to take sign language lessons, so that is something else to look into. I've always felt that sign language combines two of my biggest interests: language, and movement.

My friend Cynthia did some aptitude testing last year - I might consider going to the Johnson-O'Connor Research Foundation and do that, too. It was quite interesting to hear her talk about it. What brought it up was I was playing a word game that I'm insanely good at, and I thought, okay, what real world job would use this skill?" I mentioned it to her, and she told me of this testing she did that shows that sort of thing. It's very different from the interest and personality inventories I did years ago in "career counseling". This tests your actual native skills and suggests what career would use those skills.

Ack. Toxic Option Overload. This is the problem! So many things to choose from. Just have to figure out which things are priority, sort the logistics, and get on with it!

Happy New Year 2010!

Meringue Mushrooms

Or rather, 

"How To Make 100 Adorable Meringue Mushrooms a Whole Lot More Difficult Than They Needed To Be". 

First, realize at 8:15 at night that it's going to rain tomorrow, so those meringues really should have been made today when it was clear and dry. Decide that it's not too late to make them & dig out the recipe. Get out the two jellyroll pans and line them with parchment. Do a really bad job of trimming the parchment, so that the paper is not particularly straight in the pans. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Farenheit. 

Crack 6 eggs and separate the whites & yolks. Be sure they are Jumbo eggs because your Sweet Husband didn't notice the difference when he bought the last 2 dozen. 

Get out the wonderful KitchenAid mixer & whisk attachment. Wipe it down to be sure there is no residue, dust, or crumbs. Pour the six jumbo egg whites into the mixer bowl, attach the whisk, put the bowl up into mixing position, and see a tiny fragment of eggshell in the whites. Put the bowl back down, remove the whisk, detach the bowl, fish out the shell fragment, wash hands, put bowl back into position, reattach whisk, put the bowl up, and start the motor. Get the egg whites to just almost a nice soft peak stage, then realize that you forgot to add the Cream of Tartar with the egg whites. Add some, being sure not to measure it, and run the mixer some more to mix it in. Stop the mixer, & lower the bowl. 

Get out the sugar, measure 1 1/2 cups plus a little, maybe 1 3/4 cups, to account for the Jumbo eggs. Read, "Add sugar slowly". Start the mixer running, and pour the sugar in in a stream. Wonder why it doesn't seem to be getting to the stiff peaks stage. Get out the Joy of Cooking, look up "Meringues, About", and find out that you were supposed to add the sugar a Tablespoon at a time. Oops. Don't find any information about how to fix a meringue if something goes wrong. Keep running the mixer and finally realize that you have, in fact, achieved stiff peaks stage. Take the bowl off the mixer and put the whisk attachment in the sink to soak. 

Go get the stepstool and climb up to get the pastry bag supplies off the top of the refrigerator. Wonder, once again, how they ended up there inside the roasting pan in the first place? Open the supplies up and remember that the large pastry bag blew a seam the last time you used it. Get out a gallon Ziplock baggie to stand in for it. Don't find the large round tip. Decide to use the smaller pastry bag and a medium fluted tip. Put the gallon Ziploc away. Spend some time figuring out how to assemble the bag, tip, and plastic attachment thingy. Get it situated, open it up & start spooning meringue into it. Pause to wonder when the pastry bag had been washed last. Decide that it's been inside a sealed Ziploc ever since, so it's fine. 

Pipe the mushroom tops, complete with lines from the fluted tip, haphazardly onto the parchment-lined pans. Be sure not to have any symmetry or organization in the process. Get to the end of the first bit of meringue in the pastry bag. 

Get a bigger spoon and spoon too much meringue into the pastry bag, so that it won't close off completely. Now when you go to squeeze it through the tip, the meringue takes the easier exit out the top and onto your hand. Squish the excess out the top & decide if it goes back into the bowl or down the sink. Rinse your hand off & cursorily dry it, all while holding the overfull pastry bag in your other hand. 

Get back to piping. Fill the first pan with tops, and count them. Count them again to be sure, since there is no rhyme or reason to their layout on the pan. Start piping stems onto the other parchment-lined pan. Fill the rest of the space with tops. Refill the pastry bag with the rest of the meringue. Pipe more stems, to have an equal number, in between the odd gaps in the first pan. Completely fill both pans, and realize that you have a fair bit of meringue still in your pastry bag. Using one hand, while holding the half full pastry bag in your other hand, open the drawer, get out the parchment paper, pull a sheet off onto the counter, and resume piping tops & stems. Realize you've got 93 of each now, but think there is no way you can get 7 more out of the amount of meringue left. Decide to do 2 more, to have 95. Keep piping to 100. Have a bit of meringue left in the pastry bag. Decide it's going down the drain! 

Toss the pastry bag & mixer bowl into the sink & run some hot water in them. Blow the seam of the smaller pastry bag, in exactly the same way that you now remember that you blew the seam of the larger pastry bag. 

Get a spoon & start trying to smooth the mushroom tops. About 2/3 of the way through, glance at the Joy of Cooking page about making meringue mushrooms & see that they recommend using a finger to do this. Decide this is a better plan, and do so. Go into a bit of a trance while doing this detailed task. 

Get another cookie sheet down and slide it under the third parchment of meringues on the counter. Add a third rack to the oven, and slide the pans in. As it's now 9:30 and you want to go to bed before 11:30 when the oven should be turned off, dig out the oven manual and figure out how to set it to go off in two hours. 

Start cleaning things up. Seal up the bag of unused pastry bag parts. Look up at the top of the fridge where they were found, and wonder why there seems to be another gallon Ziploc up there? Get it down, and find the large round tip that you needed at the outset. Roll your eyes, sigh loudly, put it into the bag with the other supplies, and store them in the drawer they should have been in instead of on top of the refrigerator. 

Finish cleaning up, turn on the dishwasher, get a cup of tea, and go plop on the couch with netbook to share your idiocy with the world! 

Candied Citrus Peel

This is also something I make every year at Christmas time. I've done everything from pomelos to grapefruits to oranges to lemons and limes. What I've found is that smallish, thin-skinned citrus works best. So this year, I bought two five-pound bags of clementines. What follows isn't a recipe, exactly, just a method, which I've found to work over the last few years. I'm following the method outlined in the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking, with my own tweaks. If you can get organic fruit, so much the better, since you will be eating the peels. This is a several-day process, so be sure to start about a week before you need them.

Photos of the entire process can be seen here.

Wash all the fruit in soapy water and rinse well. Be sure to remove any labels.
Cut them in half and juice them (an inexpensive citrus juicer is recommended!)
Cut the empty halves in half again, pulling out as much of the flesh as possible.
Put the quarters into a large stockpot and cover with water.
Place on medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer until the peels are starting to soften, 30-60 minutes. Don't overdo it.
Drain the peels in a large colander and allow to cool.
When they are cool, use an eating spoon to gently scrape the remaining white pith off the peels.
Make enough sugar syrup to cover the peels you now have. Here's how:

Mix 1 cup white sugar, 3/4 cup water, and 3T light corn syrup in a large pot over medium heat. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Is it enough to cover your peels? If not, add the same quantities again & stir to dissolve, until you have enough. For my 10lbs of clementines, I used 4 cups sugar, 3 cups water, and about 6T corn syrup, and it was just about perfect.

Add your peels to the sugar syrup, bring to boil, lower heat and simmer until the peels start to look translucent and the syrup is starting to be absorbed, an hour or two.
Turn off the heat, cover, and allow to stand overnight.
In the morning, drain the peels. If they are very sticky, you can put them back on the heat for a few minutes until the syrup liquifies again and you can drain them.
Spread the peels out on a rack or large quantity of parchment paper and allow them to dry for a while, but not completely. You want them moist, but not drippy. Don't leave them more than a day or they run the risk of getting moldy
Spread a couple of cups of white sugar in a 9x12 pan, dredge each piece of peel in the sugar, and place in a single layer on parchment to dry. If your weather is humid like mine, this can take several days.

Between the sugar syrup and sugar to dredge the peels, I used an entire 4 lb bag of white sugar for the 10 lbs of clementines.

Finally, the peels are ready to eat! You can eat them like candy, or chop and use in recipes, or dip them in chocolate and allow to harden for an even more elegant treat!

Fearless Friday: Muffins

Based on the success of the cupcakes made from the gluten-free cake recipe, I decided to try an experiment to decrease the sugar even more. So based on that recipe, I made up the following one. If it works, I'll have a snack that is free of grain, gluten, dairy, sugar, and fake sugar. The only major allergen it contains is egg. I do have at least one friend who will not be able to eat them because of that. And I guess nuts, but those are quite easily left out.

Carrot Apple Raisin Muffins
(Free of gluten, grain, dairy, sugar, & sugar substitutes)

3/8 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons flax seed, ground
(1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice - suggestions*)
5 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins (used 1/4 cup golden & 1/4 cup regular)
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts**

In a small bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, ground flax, & spices.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and applesauce.
Add carrots, raisins, and pecans and mix.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and mix.
Grease 12 cup muffin tin and dust with coconut flour, or line with muffin papers.
Pour batter into cups 2/3 full and bake at 325° for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.
Remove from oven, allow to cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove from pans & cool completely.

*My applesauce was homemade, and was very spicy with ginger, cinnamon, & anise seeds, so I didn't add any extra spices. Therefore these measurements are just suggestions.
**If you know me at all, you know I used pecans. I always say, "A walnut is a Yankee's poor excuse for a pecan!" That being said, I concede that walnuts would work just fine in such a recipe.

I transferred them to a cooling rack, and we each grabbed a warm one on our way out the door - Husband was halfway through his before I bit into mine, so I asked him for an assessment. He said it was, "like cornbread with fruit in it," and he liked it. I bit into mine and found the texture to be fantastic! It was pretty much not sweet at all, except for the raisins. When we got home, we each had a room-temperature one, and found it much sweeter than the warm ones had been. I refrigerated them overnight, and in the morning found them *plenty* sweet for breakfast.

There are a couple of things I will do differently next time:
- I will grease & flour the muffin cups instead of using papers, because I didn't like how much muffin stuck to the papers.
- I will try using 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut in place of the flax seed, just to see how it affects the taste & texture. Perhaps I'll try using both as well.

But all in all, I declare this Fearless Friday a success! I will *definitely* be making it again.

**Update** I made a second batch, and it did not come out anything like as well as the first. They were edible, but soggy. There were a few changes contributing to this: 
1. I used a less-expensive brand of coconut flour, which was milled less finely and had a higher fat content than the Bob's Red Mill that I used before. I now recommend *only* Bob's Red Mill Coconut Flour. It's around $7/lb, but you only use tablespoons of it at a time. My first bag lasted me an entire year.  
2. I eliminated the flax seed, and added 1/4 cup unsweetened, flaked coconut. I loved the flavor of the coconut added, so next time I will try adding both.
3. My applesauce had sort of separated and was a bit runny, and
4. I didn't measure the carrot shreds, but just grated 2 carrots into the bowl. I don't know that this threw it off, but with baking, measuring is usually a good idea.

I'll make a third batch and let you know how they come out!

Cupcakes!

Tomorrow is Husband's birthday! Time to bake!

As I said, I have a new pan that makes rosette-shaped cupcakes. Since last year's cake was the first that really turned out for me, I decided to use the same recipe this year. Husband requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Since I don't intend to frost the cupcakes & obscure their shape, I added a cup of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips to the batter, to make it extra chocolatey for him. I checked with Joy of Cooking that any cake batter can be made into cupcakes; bake for 20-25 minutes. This agreed with the instructions that came with the pan. I had also asked the fabulous Heather Solos over at Home Ec 101 for advice on how to grease/flour the cups so that I didn't have flour globs on the rosettes. She advised me to use a bit of the flour/cocoa mix. Since this recipe uses such a *tiny* amount of flour (3/4c coconut flour/1/4c cocoa powder), I made 1/4 cup extra & reserved it for this purpose. The recipe uses coconut oil, which I have vast quantities of, but yesterday I happened upon a can of spray coconut oil, on sale, and decided to splurge on it. Hey, it's a birthday cake! And this isn't an inexpensive recipe, no matter how you slice it. (haha)

First batch seemed perfectly done at 20m. They spent 10m cooling in the pan, then I gave them a gentle massage to be sure they were loose from the sides, inverted a platter on the pan, turned the whole shebang over, and POP!! PERFECT CHOCOLATE ROSE CUPCAKES. I overfilled the second batch's cups because the batter was *almost* done, so it took the extra 5m.

While the first batch were cooling, I tried a couple of decorations, but I think I like them plain best. What do you think?

L-R: Plain; cocoa powder; flaked coconut mixed with powdered sugar; powdered sugar.

It's all I can do to keep from wolfing one down!!! (And then I did. It was DELISH!)

Fearless Friday: Meatloaf!

What's frightening about meatloaf, you ask? Well, I think I made it once 15 years ago, and it didn't turn out so well. So it's an entirely new endeavor for me. Also, since we are on a largely grain-free diet, I can't use flour or oatmeal to bind it. So I did a bit of research and made up my own recipe. And promptly used five whole pounds of ground beef to make it. So if it *doesn't* turn out, it will be a pretty big disaster.

Here is what I did:

5 lbs ground chuck (20% fat)

4 eggs, beaten

1 small sweet onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled & diced

1 orange bell pepper, diced (I'd have used red, but I happened to have orange)

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp smoked salt

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the meat, vegetables, spices, & herbs in a large bowl, using your hands. Make a well in the center, and pour in the beaten eggs. Mix again with hands, until evenly mixed. Halve the mixture and press into two 5x9 loaf pans. Place both loaf pans on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch spillovers) & put into preheated oven. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until instant-read thermometer inserted into middle reads 165F. Drain fat, and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

I just put them in the oven, so I'll update with how long they actually cook, and how they come out...

Update: OMGYUM!!! I love it! They took just over an hour & 15, certainly no more than an hour and a half. I turned off the oven and let them sit while my neighbor and I walked the dogs. I poured a bit of the fat into the dogs' food when we got back, and boy were they happy campers! I poured the rest of the fat/drippings into a container so we have quite a few more happy dog meals, LOL. So I transferred the loaves to a plate, cut a slice, and tried it out. I declare it a success! It could use a bit of gravy (or ketchup, Husband will say, LOL) because it's just a tad dry, but that really means that it held together well and is yummy!

I'm calling this one a success!

The McCombs Plan

So today (Tuesday, 8/18/09) is Day Six of a sixteen week Plan that Husband and I have embarked upon: The McCombs Plan. The photo is of the supplements (just for ME) that the plan uses. With Husband's schedule, he's just following the eating part of the plan as best he can, the supplements would be impossible for him to keep up with.

The Plan has four elements: 1. Supplements, 2. Drink Water, 3. Sweat, 4. Eating Plan.

The goal of the plan is to kill off fungal candida overgrowth, re-establish proper intestinal flora balance, and discover and eliminate what foods you are sensitive to. We all have candida, it's part of the normal intestinal flora, but with our modern diet and overuse or misuse of antibiotics, it grows out of control, causing a multitude of problems.

1. The supplements help to kill fungal candida, flush it out of the body, and re-establish proper flora. You take a detox supplement for the entire 16 weeks. This is primarily megadoses of Vitamin C, along with some other immune boosting herbs like echinacea. You take a candida-killing supplement for the first 8 weeks. After 6 weeks you add in an acidophilus supplement. There is no point to adding the probiotics before then, as the candida is too strong still and will overpower it.

2. Drinking water (1 quart per 50lbs of body weight) also helps to flush it out. We all know this is good for us. I actually already drank about this much water every day, so it's just a matter of accounting for me.

3. Sweating also helps to flush the toxins (that you are killing off) out of your body. You are to do this 6 times a week. This, to me, is the strangest part of the plan. I mean, it makes perfect sense once you read the explanation, but when I first heard about it, I wondered what on earth it was about. You see, exercise sweating doesn't count, it has to be in a bathtub or sauna. Hunh? More about this in a minute.

4. The eating plan limits what the candida feeds on, and as it's also an elimination diet, it helps you figure out what YOU react to. The first 8 weeks are the most restrictive, but it's *quite* a reasonable diet. You may eat: All meats except pork. All vegetables, including starchy ones. All fruits except oranges. Eggs. Brown rice (any form). Coffee, Tea. Olive oil. Coconut oil. (If you are not hip to coconut oil, read up on it, it's a remarkably health-giving substance!) Not a bad diet at all! It's sort of what I "claim" to eat anyway, but this is forcing me to put my money where my mouth is, as it were. After 8 weeks, you add back classes of food, one at a time. This way you are able to isolate your reactions and see what exactly you are reacting to.

So anyway. They send you a checklist to keep track of your supplements, water consumption, and sweating. I have mine on the fridge, and have been doing really well so far. On Day 2, I had a brain fart and had an iced latte at Starbuck's, but have not fallen off the diet wagon other than that. I've taken all my supplements and drunk all my water each day. The one thing I have not done is the sweating. On Day 2, I did my 30 minute bath, but as I have yet to figure out how to incorporate this into my daily routine, I have not been doing the sweats. Uh oh. See, here's the deal with the sweating, quoted from the book that accompanies the plan:

The major detoxification organs of the body are the liver, lungs, GI tract, and skin. Fungal Candida increases the toxicity of the entire body and thus overloads the detoxification system. Therefore it becomes essential to detoxify the body through its largest detoxification organ - the skin. ... Please Note: If you fail to follow the sweating protocol, your body will experience what may look like a cold, sore throat, etc., due to its attempts to detoxify the body through already overloaded systems.

... the sweating that results from [exercise] is not the same as the sweating that occurs during a dry sauna or a hot bath. The sweating that results from a hot bath or sauna involves conducting heat from outside the body to the core of the body, and toxins stored deeper within the body are released. Only sweating that is induced with a sauna or a hot bath will work to efficiently and effectively detoxyfy your body on this plan. If you avoid this step, you will likely develop a sore throat and cold symptoms.

I keep looking at my checklist and saying, "Oh my goodness, I have GOT to do that sweating!" but not doing it. Guess what? Last night, I realized my sinuses were filling up. And I woke up this morning with a sinus headache. It's by no means the worst I've ever had, but it's a great reminder of why the sweating must be done!

I have wasted my "bath" time making this entry, but I am on my way to the gym, where there is a sauna, so I will investigate that for the first time.

So there is my life for the next 15 weeks... Wish me luck! ;-)

*Update*: I took the plunge and did ten minutes in the sauna at the gym. It was fairly pleasant. The time went pretty fast because there was another gal in there to chat with. Interesting: I had sweat running down my leg from my operated knee. My other knee just had a few drops on it. I noticed this one day at physical therapy, too; that my working knee was sweating, but I chalked it up to isolating that leg in the exercises. This is different, my whole body was sweating, but more from operated area. I'm totally, totally fascinated by this!

Delicious!

**THIS**

is my new favorite thing!!!

If you are too lazy to follow the link, okay fine. Here is the description:

Salish Smoked Salt is organic Pacific Sea salt that is cool smoked over red alderwood. No artificial coloring or flavoring is added. Salish gives food a delicious smoke flavor both on and off the BBQ. Try on Salmon, red meat, creamy pasta dishes & baked potatoes!

I say, try it on slices of tart/sweet apples. Try it on steak. Try it on your finger! Just try it!

I received mine as a gift. I just looked at the price and went, whoa! But oh my gosh, it's SO worth it. And the flavor is intense, you only need a little bit of it for a LOT of flavor, so it will go a long way.

You can read about it HERE, and they have a link to order it online.

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! ;-)

Notes from the Road

[[Written on the airplane]]

Driving to Austin this morning, I saw bluebonnets starting to emerge, lovely! It's been a very dry winter though, so my personal prediction is that they will not be very lush this year. I'm no horticulturist, so perhaps they will prove me wrong!

The drought was abundantly evident in the many tanks I drove by that were nothing more than muddy depressions in the ground. A tank, for any yankee or citified southern readers I might have, is a man-made pond for the livestock to drink from and cool off in.

I absolutely love the Austin airport. It's so easy to get to, into, and through! There was one weird inconvenience today: they had signs that directed me on a bizarre goose chase around the parking lot, at the end of which I ended up parking pretty much where I always park. I have no idea what that was about.

They have a shuttle bus, but I always choose to walk. I just sat for an hour and a half, and am about to sit for a couple of hours on the plane, so I welcome the opportunity to stretch my legs in between. I was glad that my parka for Chicago fit into my suitcase so that I didn't have to wear it in the Texas heat!

There was no line at Security, breezed right through. Note to self: hiking boots aren't the *best* choice for pulling off for security...

An earlier flight had cancelled, so the half-full flight I'd signed up for was suddenly full. So, no first class seat for me, but a seat is a seat & I got one, and I'm on my way to the Windy City!

As we were waiting on the jetbridge to board, a cute young boy turned around and started chatting with me and a chick standing near us. Turns out he is a percussion major at UT & is headed to Chicago to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He won second place in an international competition last year, so he must be pretty rockin!

The chick said she was headed up with a friend who will be playing in a charity fundraiser poker tournament, so that's pretty cool, too.

The captain on this flight turns out to be female, which is still rare, although I'm sure it's getting less so all the time.

I was not worried that I only have a little left to go on the one book I brought along, because I always enjoy the in-flight magazine, and since I haven't flown in a while, it would be a new one to me. Well. This issue is 100% dedicated to basketball. Articles about players, their clothes, gadgets, favorite restaurants and hotels. Even reviews of CDs that basketball players have guest starred on. So, I flipped through it in about 5 minutes and was done with that! Boring. The good news is that when I head home on Monday, it will be a new month, so there will be a new issue for me to read.

I could kick myself for not bringing along a baggie of almonds! I bought a bag of sunflower seeds in the airport, and they are pretty awful. Yay for rancid vegetable oils. Next time you open a bag of potato or tortilla chips, take a whiff of it before you start chowing. That smell? Rancid vegetable oil. I wish some brave company would step out boldly and make potato chips cooked in lard or beef tallow! Animal fats don't go rancid, folks. Not at anything *like* the rate that veg oils do. Anyway. Today's rant!

We have landed in Chicago, but have stopped short of the gate. I'm sure if adventures warrant, I'll post about them soon!

Lemon Pecan Shortbread

So Sunday night at a Superbowl party, we tried a lemon Girl Scout cookie. Husband mentioned later that he'd really liked it. So I said, okay, I'll make you some lemon cookies that are better!

So, I did a search for lemon shortbread on Epicurious.com and found this recipe to start with:

Lemon Shortbread
Bon Appétit August 2001

The secret to tender shortbread — a classic Scottish treat — is not overworking the dough.

Yield: Makes 24 wedges

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 300°F. Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add butter; cut in using on/off turns until moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Press 1 dough half onto bottom of each of two 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Pierce dough all over with fork.

Bake until cooked through and pale golden, about 40 minutes. Cool shortbread in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut each warm shortbread in pan into 12 wedges. Cool completely. Using spatula, carefully transfer to platter. (Can be made up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)


And here is what I actually did:

Lemon Pecan Shortbread

1 1/2 cups "white whole wheat" flour (It's all I had on hand. Gave it a pleasantly "Digestive" quality)
2/3 cup sugar (I ran out of turbinado sugar, so used half that & half white)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp lemon extract
grated lemon peel (I don't know how much, I just denuded two lemons with my Microplane zester/grater)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I put it back in the fridge after I cut it up so it would be really cold when I added it)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

I am a butter snob, I used Kerrygold from Ireland. If you can't get it, Falfurrias from Texas is actually just about as good. Recipes always call for unsalted butter, then have you add salt. So I just use salted butter and don't add salt.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add butter and pecans; cut in using on/off turns until moist clumps form. Don't over-process! Gather dough into ball; press into 9x12 pyrex pan.

Bake until cooked through and pale golden, about 40 minutes. Cool shortbread in pan on racks 5 minutes. Cut warm shortbread in pan into squares. Cool completely. Using spatula, carefully transfer to platter. (Can be made up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

They were even better the next day, the lemon flavor was even more pronounced. Yum!

Gluten-Free CAKE!!

Husband's birthday is today! To celebrate, I wanted to bake him a gluten-free cake, so that I could enjoy it with him. I found this fantastic recipe at Elana's Pantry, which is a wonderful organic, gluten-free recipe and information source!
Now, I did adapt the recipe in several ways, to use what I had on hand, and to make it "German Chocolate"-ish. The more coconut, the better!! Here is my version:

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

¾ cup coconut flour, sifted
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 eggs
1 cup coconut oil
1 ½ cups agave nectar*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda.
In a large bowl of mixer, using the balloon whisk attachment, blend eggs, oil, agave nectar*, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and continue to blend.
Oil (2) 9 inch round cake pans and dust with coconut flour.
Pour batter into pans and bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool completely then remove from pans.
Frost and serve.

"German" Chocolate Frosting
1 cup flaked (unsweetened) coconut soaked overnight in apple juice
1 cup Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch celtic sea salt

In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate chips and coconut oil.
Stir in agave, vanilla, salt, and soaked coconut.
Place frosting in freezer for 15-25 minutes to cool.
Remove from freezer and whip frosting in the mixer with the whisk attachment until it is thick and fluffy.
Frost over cake.
Serve!

Photos can be seen at my Picasa site!

IMPORTANT FURTHER UPDATE: (2/13/10) Use turbinado sugar, honey, or maybe maple syrup, but not the agave nectar. I have since found out that agave nectar has more of the processed sort of fructose (versus the good stuff in fresh fruit) than the evil High Fructose Corn Syrup. Stay FAR FAR AWAY from it.

Almond Power Bars

I found a photo, description, and link to this recipe on my new favorite blog/website, The Nourishing Gourmet. She posts recipes and tips for making delicious foods made with traditional, natural ingredients. Her philosophy is based on the Nourishing Traditions book, and she's really living it and spreading the word. I'm grateful for the help, as I want to live into this philosophy as much as I can, but the book is a bit daunting.

She found the recipe itself on the website Elena's Pantry, and Elena, in turn, modified it from Melissa Diane Smith’s recipe for Amaretto Protein Bars in her book Going Against the Grain.

So! Without further ado, here is my own version:

2 cups almonds (raw)
½ cup flax meal (flax seeds ground in a blender)
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup unsalted almond butter (roasted tastes better)
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup coconut oil
2 to 4 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Place almonds, flax meal, shredded coconut, almond butter and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly, about 10 seconds.
In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. [I actually just put the jar into hot water until I could pour out what I needed] Remove coconut oil from stove, stir honey and vanilla into oil. Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste.
Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish.
Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens.
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate chips over very low heat, stirring continuously.
Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens.
Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve.
Makes 20 bars

[Tuesday Update: We each had one or two of these today midday, and did not need to eat lunch. They are DELICIOUS, not too sweet, and very satisfying. Awesome!! Next time I will add dried cherries to the bars... yum! John had the idea to put pistachios in, that would be good, too. The post at Elena's Pantry has a macadamia version too... So yummy and fun! Easy too, once you have the ingredients on hand. I've been eating flaxmeal with my yogurt, so I had to buy roasted almond butter, coconut, and coconut oil. Now that I have them on hand, super easy to make more!]

One more Update: I did make it with the dried cherries, and added a bit of almond extract too. I also found the agave nectar called for in the original recipe and used 2 Tablespoons of that in place of the honey. These additions made these a bit sweeter than the last batch, but also tasty! I'm not sure about the agave nectar, things I've read say it's "low-glycemic", and it's a more neutral sweet than the flavor of honey or maple syrup. I may try maple syrup next time. Oh, one thing I noticed about the agave nectar, I tasted a drop of it by itself, and I think it tastes of marshmallows. Weird!

IMPORTANT FURTHER UPDATE: (2/13/10) Use the honey, or maybe maple syrup, but not the agave nectar. I have since found out that agave nectar has more of the processed sort of fructose (versus the good stuff in fresh fruit) than the evil High Fructose Corn Syrup. Stay FAR FAR AWAY from it.

HOLY TOLEDO!! Coconut Ice Cream

This is currently freezing in my ice cream maker but the first taste was SO FREAKING AWESOME that I just had to run in here and post the recipe!!

From Epicurious but with substantial changes:

1/8 cup ginger preserves
2 13.5- to 14-ounce cans chilled unsweetened coconut milk (NOT LOW FAT)
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup chilled heavy cream
5 tablespoons fresh lime juice*
1 tablespoon grated lime peel/zest
Pinch of salt

Whisk coconut milk, sugar, half and half, lime juice, lime peel, salt, and ginger preserve in medium bowl until sugar dissolves.

Transfer mixture to ice cream maker. Process according to manufacturer's instructions.

Transfer ice cream to container; cover and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

*I only had one small lime, so I used its juice, however much that turned out to be.

I reduced the specified amount of sugar from 1 cup plus 2T to a little less than a cup, and would like it even better with a skosh less, hence the 3/4 cup measurement. I think it will be a bit icy, several of the reviewers mentioned theirs was, but using heavy cream should help that some. One reviewer made hers with egg yolks for an even richer version. Making a custard in a double boiler was beyond my patience tonight, so I didn' t try that variation!

But oh my GOSH. The coconut flavor is strong and delicious, and it's just sweet enough. Seriously, I cannot tell you how delicious this is!!

Party followup

So, the Dog Party was a huge success!!

Based on the RSVPs, I was expecting 14 dogs, but only 7 came. It was a good mix, though, so probably all for the best!

Go see photos from the party!

The captions tell the story of the dogs playing. None of the other dogs were as interested in the water as Suki was! But they all had a blast playing together. There are also way too many photos of the food and its preparation, LOL.

As for the foods: Well, the hummus and gazpacho were hits, as you've noticed from the requested recipes I posted.

The fruit purees didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but they weren't bad. I think just plain grapefruit juice would have worked better than trying to use the pulp and juice. Also, Note To Self: before whirling the pulp of three grapefruits in the small food processor, strain it so that the juice is held separately. Otherwise it leads to

The Great Exploding Grapefruit Extravaganza of 2008!!!

Um, yeah. A mess. A HUGE mess.
I saved the remaining berry purees and will probably make ice cream or something with them.

The minted yogurt with cucumber was fantastic, I thought. As noted in previous post, I strained the yogurt to thicken it, mixed in chopped fresh mint, sea salt, and just a tiny bit of ground cumin. If it were a fancy party, I would have put this mixture into a baggie, snipped off the corner, and piped a dollop onto each cucumber round for a fancy hors d'oeuvre. Since it was a casual party, I just put the slices & sauce out for dipping. Another way to serve it would be to chop the cucumber and mix it into the sauce. Then you've basically got Indian Raita or Greek Tzatziki.

Okay this is making me hungry and my dog wants to play, so, enjoy!

Yay Cooking!!

Man, I love throwing parties, because they give me the chance to play with new food ideas!

I'm trying to be gluten-free these days, so I planned the party food around that. I doubt that anyone will notice that anything is missing. Yes, except for those of you who read this and that I've mentioned it to. But you know what I mean.

Last week we went to The Mother Ship, and among all the other stuff we got, I bought a small exotic soda from Italy. It was grapefruit/strawberry. It was WAY too sweet for my taste, but it was an interesting combination. The way I make sodas these days is to take fruit juice and mix it with fizzy water (like Perrier.) So I thought, what if I make grapefruit and strawberry purees and mix with the fizzy? I also bought raspberries for the same purpose. I'll let you know how they come out!

I love apples and cheese, so I bought a log of goat cheese and some Pink Lady apples for that purpose. I'll make hummus and offer tortilla chips and veggies to dip it. I'm also straining some fabulous bulgarian yogurt. I'll mix fresh mint into it, and either mix in cucumber, or offer slices to dip it with. I got some of those great hothouse/english cukes for that. The big job today is to make gazpacho! I've been lamenting the lack of raw veggies in my diet (the enzymes they contain aid digestion) and gazpacho is a great way to get them! It's a lot of work to make, but then you have several days worth of veggies to "drink". I've also got two cantaloupes that should be fabulous, as they are sitting there smelling up my kitchen (in a good way!)

So anyway, it's a lot of light, cold, summery snacks for all the guests at Suki's party tomorrow!

Oh, yeah, I'm not sure who all reads this, but it's possible that someone would read it that wouldn't know - Sunday is Suki's first birthday, so I'm throwing her a party tomorrow evening! There will be something like 14 dogs running around my back yard... Crazy! I have two baby pools and two sprinklers for them to play in, almost 20 tennis balls, and a new HUGE rope toy for them to play with! So, of course all the food I'm making is for the humans who bring the dogs...

Okay. I have to go get in the shower and go to the chiropractor and run errands and get back here and start cooking. Happy Weekend!!