Chocolate Coconut Bars

This should make about 9 candies.

Blend in food processor until it comes together:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut 
• 2 T coconut oil (room temp)
• 1 T honey

On parchment paper, press into a rectangle. Place in freezer while making chocolate.

In bowl, mix until smooth:

• 2 T coconut oil, melted
• 2 T maple syrup
• 4 T cocoa powder
• 1/4 t vanilla
• dash of salt
• dash of cayenne pepper

Add a little chocolate to the bottom of mini cupcake/candy paper cups.
Cut coconut bars to fit wrapper.  Press coconut piece into chocolate cups so chocolate comes up sides a little.  Add chocolate to top to cover.
Place in freezer for 10 minutes.

All Cornmeal Cornbread - gluten free

We accidentally have A LOT of organic cornmeal at the moment.  I made up this recipe tonight and it was so good, Phil said I should write it down so I can make it again.  See Update below, which was even better! 

Almost 2 cups of organic cornmeal

• 3 T almond flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt

• 1 egg
• 2 T melted coconut oil (I melted this in the pan, bad idea-it leaked)
• 2 T melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup low fat greek yogurt plain
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 T honey

Mix wet ingredients into dry mix.
Pour into greased dark grey cake pan with removable sides.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Update:  I made cornbread again last night without looking at this recipe.  I think it came out even better, with a real corn taste with coconut and butter flavors.  No need to add butter for serving!

MY BEST 100% CORNMEAL CORNBREAD (so far)

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees.  Use coconut oil to grease 9 inch round dark cake pan with removable sides.

Mix in small bowl:

• 2 cups organic cornmeal from Co-op (coarse)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Mix in large bowl:

• 2 T melted coconut oil (melt in microwave 30 seconds)
• 1 T melted butter
• 2 T honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (the last of a container of low-fat greek yogurt is what I had on hand)
• 1.5 cups almond milk (plain)

Pour Dry mix into Wet mix.  It will seem way too liquify, but it is OK.  Let it sit for a few minutes before pouring into pan and baking.

Bake for 25 minutes.  I turned the oven temp down to 400 degrees when I put it in so the heat would not come back on.

Butternut Squash Lasagne

A month ago, I made a butternut squash lasagne and have been asked for the recipe by several people who ate it.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow a recipe and did not take any notes when I made it.  To the best of my recollection, this is what I did.

I used 9 oven-ready lasagne noodles in 3 layers of 3 noodles each, but you increase the squash, cheese and sauce a bit, you can add another layer, or if your pan is wider than mine, put 4 noodles in each layer.

1. Mix together and roast on baking tray(s) at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes until squash is tender.  

• Large butternut squash, sliced thin (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2-3 inches?)
• garlic cloves, sliced, (how many?  maybe 4?)
• Large onion, sliced thin 
• olive oil, a little, just to coat lightly
• salt
• fresh sage (If I added sage, I would have used the sage I froze last summer, but probably fine without)

2. Mix these ingredients together in a bowl.

• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• fresh mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup?)

3. In a saucepan, bring these ingredients to a boil, remove from heat, let sit 10 minutes.

•  3 cups almond milk
• 1 bay leaf

4. Add tomato sauce to milk, bring to boil again, simmer until thickened. Remove bay leaf at end.

•  2 cups homemade fairly thick tomato sauce made with garlic and herbs, frozen last summer (or any type of tomato sauce)

This is where I got distracted and eventually noticed it was boiling madly, not simmering.  Note: béchamel sauce usually adds flour and milk after first boil, but I did not add flour and used tomato sauce instead, and it thickened. Could be the mad boiling. 

5. Wash, drain, and wilt spinach.  I used microwave for a minute or two.

• Bag of spinach (10 oz?)

6. After vegetables are roasted, turn oven down to 375 degrees.

7. Coat lasagne pan with oil.

8. Layer in pan:

• 1/2 cup milk/tomato mixture
• lasagne noodles
• half the squash/onion mixture
• half the spinach
• half the cheese mixture
• 3/4 cup milk/tomato mixture

9. Repeat layers ending with noodles and pouring rest of milk/tomato mixture over it.  I probably sprinkled a little shredded parmesan and/or mozzarella on top.

10. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake until bubbling, about 20-30 minutes more.

11. Cool, cover, refrigerate. Send on a five hour journey with husband to in-laws.  At some point somebody thinks to put it in the freezer.  After about a week, take it out of freezer and put it on top of freezer in garage for about 5 days (fortunately it was about 10 degrees in the garage). Defrost on kitchen counter for a few hours. Cut some pieces, microwave, and serve to mother-in-law.  Put leftovers in fridge for another week and serve it to more unsuspecting in-laws.  Hope everybody lives.

12.  #11 is what happened to this lasagne.  In addition to be concerned about having scalded the almond milk, it is why I was afraid it might accidentally sicken somebody.  It would be much safer to eat it right away, or cover in plastic wrap, then foil to freeze for up to 2 months.  Defrost in fridge for 24 hours, and heat in oven at 375 degrees until hot and bubbly.

Pizza

Growing up on part of LI that had fantastic, huge, foldable pizza sold from independent pizza parlors in every strip mall, when I went to college in Albany, I was shocked and dismayed to discover Pizza Hut pizza.  I didn't actually recognize the pan pizza as pizza. Knowing I would never be able to reproduce the pizza parlor crust, I never even tried making pizza dough until two days ago.

To make sure there was no comparison to real pizza, and to add to the challenge, I make gluten-free pizza dough.  I am not an experienced gluten-free baker either - it was only a week ago that I made my first gluten-free baked good and I can't say I was thrilled with the result.

No way was I going to try to compete with the traditional tomato sauce and mozzarella pizza either.  I had enough dough for two pizzas.  Sunday's pizza was topped with basil pesto, roasted red pepper, goat cheese, chicken sausage with spinach.  (pesto and pepper homegrown and prepared last summer and frozen, goat cheese from Cohoe's R&G Cheese).

The only part of tonight's pizza that was cooked was the sliced red onions cooked on the pizza dough. After crust was baked, a sour cream/dill/lemon/red onion mixture was spread on it, followed by capers, and smoked sockeye salmon. Knowing this was going to be a crispy crust and nothing like the soft foldable pizza of my youth, I cut this pizza in appetizer size squares.  

Does anybody still can you neighborhood  pizza place a pizza parlor?

Simple and Delicious Roasted Leek, Potato, and Garlic Soup

There are just 4 ingredients in this recipe besides a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  So simple, yet so delicious.  Me raving over anything made with potatoes is really unusual, so this must be good!

I made this soup tonight for a holiday party in 2 weeks and hope it is as good after being frozen as it is now.  It turned a butter yellow color, and tastes buttery and creamy,  yet has no butter or cream in it.  It would be vegan if it wasn't for the homemade turkey bone broth.  I could have used vegetable broth, but it may be this particular turkey broth is what made this soup so good.  Or it could be the locally grown Norwis Potatoes from the Carrot Barn in Schoharie, or our own-grown Leeks and German White Garlic.  Other than that, the only other ingredients were a little bit of olive oil and dash of sea salt and pepper.   These directions are exactly what I used, but no reason these particular varieties need to be used-I am sure it would be good with vegetable broth, and different kinds of potatoes and garlic.

This is a double recipe, so cut in half if you don't want feed 2 for dinner and 10 cups more.

Preheat oven to 400 or 425 degrees.
To large roasting pan add:

• 5 lbs norwis potatoes, peeled and cubed small (about 3/4 inch) (not all of the potatoes fit in my pan)
• 5 cups leeks, sliced and diced
• 2 german white garlic heads.  I removed the paper because of dirt, but it would be easier to leave cloves connected and slice off top so cloves stay together.  These garlic each had 4 giant cloves-6 cloves went into the roasting pan. 
• olive oil
• sea salt

Pour some olive oil on the vegetables and mix with hands till all coated.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt.  (I didn't measure- 2-4 TBSP of olive oil?)

Put in oven, stir occasionally, roast until done (everything is soft and smells good- 30-40 minutes?)
While the veggies are in the oven, Heat in Large Soup Pot:

• 12 cups reconstituted homemade Turkey Broth- about 12 large ice cube sized frozen cubes, plus water.
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced (or minced tops cut from garlic heads).
• When hot, add any potatoes that wouldn't fit in the roasting pan.  In my case, that was about 1.5 - 2 pounds.

Simmer until potatoes are soft.  Remove the bay leaves.
The roasted vegetables should be done about the same time.

• Remove the roasted garlic first. 
• Add the roasted vegetables to the soup pot.  
• Squish some of the roasted garlic into the soup.  I reserved 2 of garlic roasted garlic cloves because I didn't want it to be too garlicky.
• Deglaze the roasting pan by adding a cup of water and heating it on the stove just enough so the  browned bits detach from the roasting pan and color the water.  Add this liquid to the soup pot. 
• Stir and simmer until the flavors start coming together.
• Add a little fresh finely ground black pepper (I would probably use white pepper next time) and more sea salt if needed.
• Blend with an immersion blender.  Stop whenever it is consistency you want.  I kept blending until really smooth. 

I was going to add sour cream or milk to it (later to the portions being frozen), but it was so creamy and delicious as is, it didn't need anything more.

Serve with choice of toppings typical for baked potatoes - fresh chives, shredded cheddar cheese, bacon bits, and sour cream.

Note: The turkey bone broth was made from the carcass of our 20 pound fresh Thanksgiving Turkey we ordered from Honest Weight from a farm in PA that was certified as humanely raised.  What a difference than the mass-market frozen turkeys. Slowly simmered for about three hours with some carrots, celery, and onion, it made fantastic broth with no fat or scum at all.   I think it was $2.50/lb. Worth the $50 to feed the family on Thanksgiving and send everyone home with lots of leftover turkey.

Strawberry Orange Spinach Salad with Pecans

Spinach fresh from the Spring garden doesn't need any embellishment, but I made this oil-free and pretty strawberry-orange dressing for it tonight that was light and naturally sweet.

In food processor, pulverize 1 orange.   Add 1 tsp chia seeds, 2 tsp apple cider vinegar, and 3-4 strawberries.  Add water as needed to consistency.  I added about 1/4 cup water.

Dice 1/2 a red onion and slice a few strawberries onto the raw spinach leaves. Add salad dressing.  I was going to add pecans but didn't remember until after I starting eating it. It was good either way.

If just orange juice was used, the chia seeds would act as a gel to hold the dressing together.  By using the whole orange, the chia seeds weren't needed for that purpose, but are still good for nutrition (rich is omega 3 fatty acids- the good kind).

Vegan Cornbread

I have finally created a cornbread recipe I like, by combining the best of two vegan cornbread recipes.    It was moist with great texture warm out of the oven. It was basically this vegan-cornbread from healthy family and home combined with the flax seed and water technique from vinogirl's vegan cornbread on food.com

• 6 T water 
• 2 T ground flax seed

1. Boil water in a small saucepan, add ground flax seed, and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. In medium bowl, combine and set aside:

• 2 cups cornmeal (non-GMO)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 T aluminum-free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (pink himalayan if you have it)

3. In another bowl, mix together:

• 1.75 cups almond milk
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (melted in the 8x8 pan while the oven is preheating).
• 2 T maple syrup or other sweetener

4. Add the flax seed mixture to the wet ingredients and then mix wet and dry ingredients together. Batter will be thick.

5. Transfer to 8 x 8 inch baking pan that has been slightly oiled from the coconut oil.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes.