Candy Cane Beets (Big Plans ... To Be Continued)

I had big plans! Pickle me up some striped beets ... so pretty! so festive! perfect for the holidays! They look like candy canes! ... Alrighty, I'll call 'em Candy Cane Beets. Such plans! And I thought I'd be able to fit in some pickling before going away on vacation.

Ha.

Ha.

HA!


Not to be. I'm putting them in a greenie bag. Have you heard of them? Like these or these. Wicked cool reusable bags that help your produce last longer. Less waste, less landfill, less rotten carbon emissions from shipping the food to the grocery store that just goes bad. Greenie bags are all good.

But while I will not have time to make my Candy Cane Beets before I go, I will show you what I plan to do when I return.

The Beets (photo courtesy of PBS)

Pretty right? Yup!

I had planned to roast some for immediate eating and them pickle the rest of the roasted ones, as per this wonderful recipe from Alton Brown, cuz I mean, you gotta love Alton Brown. You gotta, I'm sure you do.

So, if you're looking for an unusual and healthy recipe to bring to any holiday parties in the next couple weeks, I'd recommend these striped beets. Call 'em Candy Cane Beets, cuz they sure are sweet. And feel good eating them and feeding your loved ones a food so sweet and full of fiber, Vitamin C, iron, magnesium, potassium, and other nutrients.

Happy Holidays!

(Oh, and if you're a beet enthusiast like I am, you can also hang a single beet from the center of a doorway as a super-huge mistletoe, and kiss your beloved beneath the beet. HA!)

More postings when we return from our trip!

I'm Dreaming of a Green Kitchen: Holiday Gift Ideas

For the holidays, I have a personal tradition where I try to make my loved ones gifts or purchase them some cool "green" toys or gizmos for their home. My feeling is: What could be better than receiving a gift that makes you feel light in spirit and ethical every day?

So, I've been researching different "green" products for the kitchen. I'm thinking I might be stuffing some stockings with "Green-Your-Kitchen" themed gifts.

I thought I'd share some of the products and research here. I'm not affiliated with any of these companies. These are just the options I've found and have been reading about. Several of them are pretty neat, and I got excited about the nifty green kitchen and home things that are coming out nowadays!

Reusable Grocery Bags
Recently, unsafe levels of lead have been found in some reusable shopping bags. From what I read, these were bags sold in stores, such as Wegman's, Publix, Winn-Dixie. But I have yet to find an article specifically stating all the stores.

Luckily, ChicoBag and RePete sell wonderful bags that have been tested and pass all tests. In addition, they are members of the Fair Labor Association and they are a Green American Approved Business. Heck, yeah! That's cool.

Reusable Produce Bags
Planet Green says Americans use over 1 billion plastic bags a minute, or about 60,000 every five seconds. Besides for the horrific damage these bags cause once they've been used and tossed (landfill, oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), these manufacturing of these bags requires enormous quantities of petroleum. Gack!

Also, as we learn more and more about the harmful toxins in plastic ... I just don't want my nubile pears and innocent apples rubbing up against a plastic bag for any length of time!

There are many sources of reusable bags. Ironically, some companies appear to be selling plastic bags that have not been tested for the quality of the plastic and/or are not made out of recycled plastic. What the H*LL! Ack!

So, I've found some reusable produce bags that I'm thinking about getting for my loved ones this holiday, such as

* Ecobags, organic cloth produce sacks. Classic!
* 3BBags (Beyond Belief Bags), mesh bags that I think are pretty cool because they've been tested AND if you send them back to the company, the company will recycle them. That's commitment! So these bags never end up in a landfill.
* Simple Family Living, organic cloth bags with non-toxic plastic window--These are useful for longer term storage of grains and pastas. And people can write over-and-over on the windows with grease pencil. Ooh, fancy!

And here are some sweet and simple instructions for sewing your own cloth produce bags from Mother Earth News. Gotta love a homemade produce bag!

Pesticide Cards
EWG, Environmental Working Group, is perhaps one of my all-time-favorite groups. They do mad research! One of the excellent results of their research is the EWG's Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. By going to the website, you can download the pdf. But EWG also often offers cards with this info that can go into your wallet or get attached to one of those nifty reusable grocery bags I noted above.

For the holidays, they are also offering a holiday gift bag full of wonderful "green" booty for donors ... with reusable grocery bags, reusable produce bags, an excellent canteen, a great book, the pesticide card and other shopping tips, and many other things.

Laundry Supplies
I've been curious for some time about these nifty inventions ... laundry balls. Either they allow you to not use soap or they make it so you don't have to use much soap. There are various options. The manufacturers say these work through various means, such as ions, ceramics, minerals, magnetics, oxidation reduction, or even infrared rays! Huh? Is this my laundry room or did I walk into the pages of a comic book?

It all seems too good to be true. Yet, considering the cost of good, eco-friendly detergent, I'm thinking it might be time to give these magical suckers a try. A few of them have a pretty good number of user reviews, such as:
* EcoLaundryBalls,
* Amazing Super Wash Ball, and
* WonderBall ... Real Goods is a company that has been around since the 1970s and sells a wide-array of green products. They've been selling these laundry balls since ... geez, I think I've been looking at them for about 10 years. So, I'm considering purchasing Wonderballs from their website (a Xmas gift for myself!).

Toilet Bowl Cleaners
Another product I've been eyeing for about 10 years from Real Goods is a Chem-Free Toilet Cleaner. The mineral magnets in these cleaners are supposed to clean bacteria and help get rid of stains.

Foam Soap Dispenser
So first off, please never use any soap or cleaner or product with triclosan. Why? Triclosan is an antibacterial agent, i.e. an antibiotic. The use of non-prescribed antibiotics is actually leading to the development of more resistant strains of bacteria. What? Yup. Sucks, right? The CDC has been asking people to avoid triclosan for years. In addition, there are more and more antibiotics in our water system, and this water pollution both contributes to the resistency of bacteria but also affects our health, plant health, and animal health overall. And in case you needed any other reason to STOP with the triclosan, a recent study is now showing a correlation between triclocan-soap use and allergies in children. Bluck! (Oh and triclosan levels in humans jumped 40% in two years according to the CDC.)

If you want a product to be sure you are rid of germs, the CDC recommends "alcohol hand rinses." But the CDC stands behind soap and water for 20 seconds. So, really soap and water are more than good enough.

Secondly, foam soap is actually particularly good because the foam has been shown to cling and cover your hands, resulting in a more effective wash. So foam soap is actually better in terms of dealing with germs than regular soap. The Deputy Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign likes foam soap, so why don't you?

Third, foam soap uses far less soap. Saves you a pretty penny. Results in far less carbon and waste from the manufacturing and shipping of soap. Results in far less soap getting washed down the drain and causing water pollution.

Fourth, refilling your soap dispensor and using less soap overall means less plastic use, exposure, and waste. Less plastic means less exposure to toxins, such as BPAs, that are in plastic.

So, I've been thinking about getting my friends
* a cool refillable foam dispenser and
* some nifty good-quality organic, fair-trade soap, too, like Dr. Bronners!

Canteens
Several years ago, I bought everyone in my family Klean Kanteens. At the time, they were one of the few manufacturers that could state that their canteens were BPA free. There are other BPA-free canteen manufacturers out there now, which is awesome. But all I can say is: I use my Klean Kanteen for day-to-day uses and while camping and hiking, and it's still in near perfect shape.

Oh, and here's a great list of ideas on how to further Green Your Holiday Kitchen at Enviroblog.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!
xo

This Just In: Baked Oatmeal RULES!

Aww, shucks! I found out today that my recipe for baked oatmeal was a winner in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition's Thanksgiving recipe contest.

I won a cool cookbook, can't wait to read it.

Thanks to ya'all who took the time to vote.

Merciful bouquets!

Four Carrot Salad: Husband-Approved Salad #3!

It's been a while since I posted a husband-approved salad. The last one was the Pesto Edamame Salad, and that was all the way back in August! Well, in the meantime, I had a couple salad attempts that he didn't dig (unapproved), and then the weather turned cold. Once there's an autumn chill, we tend to eat warm veggie sides, not cold salads.

But last week, I made the four carrot salad for Thanksgiving. And the hubs gave it a serious thumbs up.

So now, finally, I have come up with HUSBAND-APPROVED SALAD #3. Hoorah. (Just 47 more to go on my 50 HUSBAND-APPROVED SALADS CHALLENGE).

Eat Your Fractals! (Thanksgiving Sides To-Go)

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, I'm on my way out, onto the road, bringing with me a couple of side dishes for the big supper! I love trying out new and different foods. Grabbing the stuff I've never eaten before from the produce aisle is certainly a good way (for me) to make sure I eat my vegetables.

The first side dish: garlic roasted Romanesco cauliflower
This awesome cauliflower looks like fractals! I love it! Beautiful green florets, sweet, and in the shape of wicked cool fractals!

I used the recipe for garlic cauliflower from the Food Network. Alas, my oven must be a tad hotter than it should be, as the garlic burned some. I'll bring with me the cauliflower and not the overly browned garlic.


The second side dish: four carrot salad
... orange carrots, purple carrots, gold carrots, and yellow (satin!) carrots. Each have an variety of slightly different vitamins and minerals to offer, as well as a slightly different flavor (ranging from sweeter to slightly more celeric).

The recipe was exceptionally simple.
1) I sliced the organic carrots very, very thin.
2) I finely diced 1 medium shallot and added that to the carrots.
3) I finely diced 1/4 c. of dried cranberries and added those in, too.
4) I made a salad dressing with 3 T. dijon mustard, 1 T. garlic-chili sauce, 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar, 1/4 c. white wine vinegar, 1 T. organic sesame oil, 3 T. organic olive oil, 1 T. dried parsley flakes, 1 T. dried basil flakes, black pepper, and 2 T. Bragg Liquid Amino (used instead of plain old salt, this is a great healthful substitute with a lot of flavor).
5) I tossed together and let sit overnight.


Gobble, gobble!

Here are some pictures!

The Morning After: Baked Oatmeal

(This is a great food for everyday buzz-buzz busy life and also for holiday guests! Which is why I posted a holiday version of this recipe in a ***CONTEST*** through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Please go to this website and vote for my recipe every day!)


Got hunger? Got guests? Got a pregnant friend??? Give 'em baked oatmeal.

I've always loved oatmeal. But I don't like to cook it every day. Enter in the majestic and tasty solution: baked oatmeal. I'd never heard about baked oatmeal before last week, when my friend and fellow blogger (The Variegated Life) introduced me to the lovely food blog and site A Nourished Kitchen.

I slightly altered A Nourished Kitchen's recipe to suit my tastes in a few ways:
1) Less sugar
2) Bran flakes (for the fiber)
3) Less dried fruit, etc. (to decrease the sugar)
4) Less custard, i.e. less egg and milk mix (to decrease the cholesterol and to insure that the squares of baked oatmeal keep their form and are truly portable)

Baked Oatmeal
Grab it cold, it's good to go. Because this is so easy to make, so filling and tasty, and makes so much, it is a great recipe for the holidays when your home is full of guests. Filling and tasty. Loaded with whole grains to help get your body restarted, metabolism smoothed out, and blood sugar leveled!

Baked Oatmeal, Yogurt, Cinnamon, and Maple Syrup

5 c. organic steel cut oats
1 c. organic bran flakes
1-2 T. yogurt
1/3-1/2 c. prunes, finely chopped
4 organic, free-range eggs
1 c. organic milk
1/4 c. molasses
**for more flavor, add 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
**for more sweetness, add 1/2 c. more dried fruit (such as raisins) or sucanat sugar

1) Put the oats, bran flakes, and yogurt in a large container or bowl. Completely cover with water and mix to combine the yogurt throughout. Cover the container with its top, a clean dishcloth, or plastic wrap. Let sit overnight.
2) Strain in a colander. Lightly with the back of a large spoon to be sure most of the excess water drains.
3) Beat the eggs and milk together (along with the extracts or sugar, if you are using those). Stir the drained oats, chopped prunes, and molasses thoroughly into the egg and milk mix.
4) Grease a 9 x 11 glass baking dish with coconut oil or vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
5) Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until brown, solid yet moist. (While cooking, you might see liquid bubbling up in places. If so, the baked oatmeal is done when there is little liquid left to bubble.)
6) Allow to cool for a few minutes. This also lets the oats absorb any remaining moisture.
7) Slice into squares and serve immediately, with brown sugar, yogurt, milk or soy milk, fresh fruit, maple syrup, honey or jam!
8) Or allow to cool completely, store in the refrigerator, and eat later. Baked oatmeal can last about 1 week.

Serving Ideas
You can appeal to your guests' wide range of tastes and hankerings with this baked oatmeal, simply by putting out an assortment of simple additions and condiments. For example, baked oatmeal can be served with:
• brown sugar or sucanat,
• yogurt,
• warm milk or soy milk,
• fresh fruit,
• maple syrup,
• honey,
• jam,
• barley malt syrup,
• peanut butter or almond butter,
• agave nectar,
• sprinkling of cocoa powder or powdered sugar,
• applesauce,
and of course …
• leftover whole berry cranberry sauce!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* Steel cut oats are good food. In Terry Walter's great book Clean Food, she notes how groats are the most nutritious form of oats, with steel cut oats coming in second. In other words, steel cut oats are a terrific source of vitamins and minerals.
* Nourished Kitchen says it best, I think:
"Baked oatmeal is both deeply nutritive and deeply satisfying. Steel cut oats are gently soaked overnight in water acidified by a touch of yogurt or fresh whey which helps to increase not only your body’s ability to better digest the grain, but also your body’s ability to better absorb its minerals. Oats are rich in minerals, including phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, iron and zinc, .... Moreover, oats are a rich source of B vitamins including folate – that critical nutrient which is vital to reproductive health and the proper development of babies growing within their mothers’ wombs."
* Nourished Kitchen and Terry Walters both recommend soaking oats in order to diminish the phytic acid. As Nourished Kitchen states:
".... but due to the effects of naturally occurring antinutrients found in whole grain, such as phytic acid, those minerals due your body little good unless oats are properly prepared as they are in this recipe."
But other sites dispute this. Some, such as The World's Healthiest Foods, suggest that there are low levels of phytic acid in oats, others suggest that the phytic acid in oats doesn't diminish much with soaking (as with other grains). One site, Rebuild the Blog, recommended adding a different type of grain into oats and soaking together as an aid to the breakdown of phytic acid. It is based on this advice that I chose to add the bran.
* This recipe makes a great breakfast, but it could be easily adapted to make a low-sugar, healthful desert option--an oat-y substitution to bread pudding!
Baked Chocolate and Cherry Oatmeal!
Just replace the prunes with 3/4 c. of dried chopped cherries, add 1 more c. of organic milk, add the extract and sucanat (as noted above), do not use the molasses, add 1/3 c. of fair-trade cocoa powder, and add 1/2 c. of fair-trade chocolate chunks.

Here are more pictures from the process.

Oats getting a soak!


Outta' the oven ...




And on my plate!

A Tad Tardy: Bloody Halloween Finger Cookies Without the Red #40

Oops! I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing, so this is a belated blog post about the Halloween recipe I tried.

I saw these on In Erika's Kitchen ...

(image from In Erika's Kitchen)

She used a great, clear recipe to make these wicked severed finger cookies from Shockingly Delicious. I checked around online, and there are a lot of variations for these awesome gruesome buttery fingers ... green-colored Frankenstein fingers, red-colored demonic digits, and werewolf claws with toasted coconut 'hair.'

AWESOME!

EXCEPT for one thing--Red #40 and Red #40 Lake, the dye used in most red food coloring and most red gels.

My friend over at Middle Aged Jock wrote a clear and succinct analysis of these food dyes, particularly about how they're banned in Europe. Yes, banned. There have been studies linking these colors to ADHD and lowered IQs in children. There's a lot of Internet debate about these dyes from a wide-range of sources. But I take it seriously when a group of countries chooses to ban something. Of course, in the United States, these dyes abound in all sorts of children's treats.

I wanted to come up with a replacement for the red gel that would be cheap, easy, and practical for busy parents and busy witches.

So, I slightly altered the recipe in one way:
* I did not use store-bought red gel.
* I mixed 1 T. dye-free red jam with 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar to create a bright red gel, free of added coloring. I happened to have lingonberry, but raspberry or strawberry would also work well.

Ta-da! Delicious! And I can rest assured that the health and IQs of any witches and warlocks who ate these cookies stayed a-okay.

Ribollita Soup: Tuscan Farm in a Bowl

I first ate ribollita soup in a small, dingy restaurant in a corner of Florence. Here was a place where you sat, you were served on teeny tables shared with strangers, and you drank your wine from tiny plain glass cups. No pretension. Insanely brilliant food. At the time, my husband and I were visiting his extended Italian relatives. A few days after that awesome restaurant meal, we were treated to a large family reunion on the family farm. Every table top was covered with homemade food, and one of the foods served was this soup.

It is awesome.

It is full of vegetables. All types of vegetables. Including leafy greens. And yet the husband eats it. That is a little miracle.

Ribollita Soup (Vegetable & Bread Soup)
This is one of my all-time favorite soups. And in addition to being tasty, it's healthy. I mean really healthy. Do I sound astonished? Yes, I do. It's just this soup is so tasty and so healthy ... It's like a scientific breakthrough or something. Just try it, and you too will be agog, happy, and pleasantly full.


2 organic onions, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4-6 stalks organic celery, finely chopped
4-5 organic carrots, finely chopped
2 organic beef tomatoes, rough chopped
28 oz. organic crushed tomatoes (with basil, ideally)
4 cups of organic vegetable broth (or 4 cups of water and low-sodium vegetable bouillon cubes)
2+ cups of water, as needed
4 cups of cooked organic white beans (cannellini, ideally from dried beans)
about a thumb-length piece of dried kombu
a head of a chopped dark leafy greens (bok choy, kale, spinach, savoy cabbage, your choice)
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 stale rolls (kaiser, ciabatta, or equivalent crusty bread), ripped into tiny pieces
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
3 T. organic, cold-pressed olive oil

1) Use a big pot. A large kettle. A witch's caldron, if you have it!
2) Heat up the olive oil in the pot over a medium flame, then add the onions. Once they are slightly translucent, add the garlic. Be sure to stir so that the garlic doesn't burn until the onions and garlic and slightly brown.
3) Add the carrots and celery. Continue to cook on medium heat until browned and slightly cooked, stirring as needed.
4) Add the dried basil, parsley, and red pepper flakes. Turn off the heat and stir. Allow the dried herbs to absorb any remaining oil or moisture. If there is no moisture left, add a spoonful of water so that the dry herbs can rehydrate.
5) Turn the heat back on. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, vegetable broth, white beans, and kombu. I like to let the soup cook in a slow boil for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. By doing so, the fresh tomatoes have a chance to break down, the broth and dried seasonings develop and meld, and the carrots and beans to fully cook. During this time, I add extra water as needed, as the broth boils down.
6) Taste the soup. Add black pepper if you want more spice.
7) Remove the kombu. Add the chopped greens, pieces of bread, and grated cheese. Cook about another 10 minutes, until the greens are completely cooked and the bread has pretty much dissolved to thicken the soup. Again, as the soup boils, it will evaporate, and so add extra water as needed.
8) Serve!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* Dried beans! Using dried beans beans means:
--we use less plastic, metal, and energy from tin cans, packaging, and shipping.
--soaking and cooking the dried beans diminishes the bean's phytic acid.
--we take in less BPAs and expose the environment to fewer BPAs (BPAs can be found in the lining of tin cans).
--cooking the beans yourself means you can cook them with some dried rosemary or thyme, thereby developing the flavor of the beans, the soup, and anything you use the beans in.
--you take in fewer preservatives and salts (as used in your standard canned cooked beans).
* If you do need to use canned beans, please check the label for BPA-free cans. (Eden Foods, on their website, says that they use BPA-free cans.)
* I just started trying to use kombu, after reading about it in Terry Walter's wonderful book, Clean Food. Kombu is a type of kelp, known for its "umami" (ooh la la). It is can be used to develop flavorful broths, grains, and legumes. It is also known for its ability to break down acids in foods, thereby improving the digestibility of those foods.
* This soup is a low-fat, low-cholesterol highly flavorful and nutritious meal, full of a variety of vegetables and vitamins; and the beans are a great source of vegetable-based protein.

How to Cook Dried Beans
1) Place the beans in a pot and cover with water.
2) Soak overnight. (This should help diminish any aftereffects, like gas.)
3) Drain the water. Rinse the beans. Then add fresh water (1 c. of dried beans to 3 c. of water).
4) Add about an inch-long piece of kombu and any dried herbs you like.
5) Boil for about 45-60 minutes, or until the beans are tender. B sure to skim off any foam. (Another thing to help diminish beany aftereffects.)
6) Use what you need, and store the extra (when cooled) in the freezer for a later date.

Here are more pictures of the soup!

Soup with a halo of light!

What Are You Eating For Lunch? Tomatoes & Parmesan

There's no recipe here today.

Knock, knock! Any recipe home? Nooo.

Just this simple and beautiful food. Sort of like bragging. Pretty much exactly like bragging.


Fresh orange organic tomatoes from the coop ...


Flavorful and tender. Look at those seeds!


Add some salt, black pepper, and thin peels of Parmesan cheese.


A whole plateful.

Peanut Butter Pie Obsession: Test 1, Test 2, Test 3 ...

Sometime ago, I learned I love peanut butter pie. Adore it like a mother adores a child. Cherish it and try to hold the pie, in all its sweetness, close to my bosom. Dream and plan for it. Coo over it. Sing it lullabies!

And who wouldn't, really? Cookie crust, cream cheese, milk, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and whipped cream. Mmmmm.

Yeah ... well, I might adore peanut butter pie. But I'd prefer to be able to adore this special treat with less worry (about heart valves, build up, arteries, eeks!).

So, the problem is ... How to Make a Healthier Peanut Butter Pie?

Peanut-Butter Pie: An Understandable Obsession

This is my process so far:
Attempt #1: Traditional Recipe
A couple years ago I made my first peanut butter pie, using a very traditional recipe. I used Emeril Lagasse's 5-star Peanut Butter Pie recipe from the Food Network. And a standard graham-cracker pie crust (1.5 c. crushed graham crackers, 8 T. melted butter, 2-3 T. sugar, baked, etc.). It produces an awesome, traditional peanut butter pie. But sadly, one filled to the rim with dairy-based cholesterol.

Attempt #2: Homemade Yogurt Cream Cheese Substitution and Less Butter
Recently, I decided to play with the pie and the crust. For the crust, I wondered if I could make the graham-cracker pie crust with less butter and less sugar. I used 1.5 c crushed graham crackers, 5 T. butter, and no sugar. Bad move! It crumbled and cut very poorly!

For the pie filling, I substituted the cream cheese with homemade yogurt cream cheese. I put the plain unsweetened yogurt in a cheese cloth in the frig overnight to thicken into something more of a cream-cheese consistency. To compensate for the slight added tartness of yogurt (in comparison to the flavor of cream cheese), I also added 1 tsp. of vanilla extract. This worked! But it was a tad labor intensive. Also, I felt this pie lacked a certain zing.

Attempt #3: Homemade Yogurt Cream Cheese, Extra Layer for Flavor, Medium Amount of Butter
Just last week, I tried again. This worked great! For the crust, I used 1.5 c. crushed chocolate cookies, 6 T. butter, and 1 T. sugar. Still a little crumbly, but delicious! I prefer the chocolate, too.

For the filling, I tried again with the homemade yogurt cream-cheese substituting for cream cheese in the traditional recipe. But before adding the whipped cream, I took some of that initial filling (peanut butter, cream cheese, sugar, milk) and spread it as a thin layer in the bottom of the cooled pie crust. Then, I added whipped cream to the remainder of the filling and added this as the main filling. This did two things: (1) created a very peanut buttery layer in the pie and spiked the overall peanut butter flavor, (2) required much less whipped cream, a healthy bonus!

But still, overall, I wonder about the need to strain the yogurt to make a yogurt cream cheese substitute, and I'm still aware of all that cholesterol in the heavy cream for the whipped cream.

***

So, for now, my cravings for peanut butter pie have been sated. But next time ... and there will be a next time ... I have a few other possible plans.

Plan for Attempt #4:
I'd like to keep with the chocolate crust from trial #3. I'd also like to keep the peanut-butter punch of the intense extra layer. But I'd like to try to just use yogurt as a straight substitution for the cream cheese and nix the milk from the traditional recipe. This would mean I wouldn't have to worry about straining the yogurt with a cheese cloth.

Plan for Attempt #5:
I wonder if anyone has ever tried to basically make a thick peanut-butter pudding filling, the way one might when making a chocolate cream pie, for example. This would mean milk, cornstarch, peanut butter, and sugar. This sort of recipe would mean no cream cheese and whipped cream only for a little topping. So, I think this recipe could mean far lower cholesterol and fat levels in the pie.

Plan for Attempt #6:
I am unsure about this idea. I think I'll try a very small batch first. I once made an amazing dark chocolate mousse using tofu and melted dark chocolate. Same premise. This would have to be tofu, peanut butter, and perhaps melted white chocolate. A far lower fat and cholesterol content, and added soy protein to boot! Healthy, for sure! Would it satisfy a peanut butter pie craving? That is the question.

To be determined ...

Excelsior! Onward and upward! From fork to plate to mouth!

Attempt #3--Delicioso!

To Blog the Process? YES (Con't. Sunday Brunch with the Ladies: Pear and Fig Tart)

I've debated whether or not I should post recipes that are in progress on this blog. You know what I mean? Recipes that I try and fall into "ehh" or "bleh" categories, or "really good but too much work" or "really good but too unhealthy!" categories. So, why not share the process here? After all, part of my goal in writing this blog was to force myself to write down the recipes as I work on them, so that I would not forget the ingredients in the future.

The Pear and Fig Tart falls into the "ehh" category. I made it a couple weeks ago, for the Sunday brunch-meets-clothing swap. I had just purchased a lovely large container of fresh figs, so I planned a very figgy menu, including Fig and Bacon Focaccia (with some Manchego Cheese) and this Pear and Fig Tart. The focaccia turned out brilliant, and one of my new all-time favorite flavor combinations! The tart on the hand was good, but not great. In the future, I think I would make it a bit differently.

Pear and Fig Tart: First Attempt
This was my first try. The pear was perfect. The fig was sweet, but monotonous in its sweetness. The crust, while having a wonderful flavor and texture, was far too thick, took up too much of each bite. In the future, I plan to make a similar crust, just less of it, and to use a lot of thinly-sliced pears ... Oh, and even though the flavor wasn't all I'd hoped for, the tart still came out looking like a star!


Crust
1 c. organic whole wheat all-purpose flour
1 c. organic spelt flour
11 T. cold butter
2 egg yolks
1/3 c. organic sucanat sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

Fruit and Glaze
6-8 fresh figs, sliced
6-8 organic seckle pears, thinly sliced (with the skins still on)
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 T. pumpkin beer
1 T. maple syrup
2 T. butter
1 T. granulated sugar

1) Mix the flours, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
2) Add the salt in little pieces and mix with a fork or with your hands until the texture of sand.
3) Add the egg yolks and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended.
4) Place the dough in a tart pan (8" or 9"), and spread out gently using your hands. Be sure the thickness of the crust is consistent.
5) Place the thin slices of fruit in a bowl and squeeze some juice from the orange over the slices. Toss.
6) Arrange the thinly-sliced fruit in overlapping concentric circles. At this point, begin preheating the oven at 375 degrees.
7) Sprinkle with the granulated sugar, and dot with butter.
8) Bake in the 375-degree oven for 30-40 minutes. Be sure crust is golden, but not overly brown.
9) Squeeze the rest of the juice from the half orange into the bowl with the remaining orange juice. Mix in the beer and maple syrup. Pour this over the warm tart.
10) Serve when cool!

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* There are many fruit tart recipes that included a layer of cheese or creme, which I avoided. So, this tart is far lower in cholesterol than those cheese-based or creme-based tarts.
* Most tart crust recipes call for 1/2-3/4 of a cup of sugar, but I personally find the whole wheat and spelt flour to be slightly sweet on its own. Then add in the fruit and light glaze! There's really no reason to have a sugar-heavy crust.
* NEXT TIME! It will be even better. Less crust means less flour and butter. More fruit means more tenderness to each bite and more vitamins and fiber. My plan for less crust and more fruit will mean a lower-calorie and lower-cholesterol tart with more flavor and nutrients.

Here are more pictures from the process.

Butter + orange + fruit = grace

Sunday Brunch (con't): Fig and Bacon Focaccia & Onion and Bell Pepper FocacciaRed

Last weekend, I had some fine dames over for a great Sunday brunch-meets-clothing swap. And for the occasion, I broke out the yeast and made some slow-rising vittles. It was a great way to cook, and while the dough rose, I had gaps of time during which I could clean and get ready.

Specifically, I made focaccia, two types:
* Fig and Bacon Focaccia (with some Manchego Cheese)
* Onion and Red Bell Pepper Focaccia (with some Parmesan Cheese)

Classy, Classic Focaccia & Variations
I doubled this classic focaccia recipe in order to make my two variations. It was easy to prepare the toppings while the dough rose.


Classic Focaccia (single batch, which I doubled):
based on a recipe from "How to Bake" by Nick Malgieri
1 and 1/3 c. warm tap water (about 110 degrees)
1 envelope active dry yeast
5-6 T. organic olive oil
3 and 1/4 c. organic whole wheat all-purpose flour
2 t. salt

1) Whisk the water, yeast, and 3 T. of the oil together in a bowl.
2) In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Once well mixed, add the yeast mixture and stir until the flour is evenly moistened (with a plastic spatula or wooden spoon).
3) Beat vigorously for 1 minute (by hand with your utensil, or with the bread paddle attachment to your mixer).
4) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it is doubled in size, which will take about 1 hour.
5) Use your hands to spread 1 T. of the remaining oil onto a sheet pan. When the dough is fully risen, turn it out onto the oiled pan. Gently stretch the dough until it fills the sheet pan. NOTE: You may need to let the dough rest for a few moments before it is limber enough to stretch without ripping.
6) Put 1 T. of oil on the fully-stretched dough, and spread thoroughly over the dough with your hands, then cover in plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise again until it is doubled in size in the pan, which should take about 1 more hour.
7) Use your fingers to gently create dimples in the dough. Then, add the prepared toppings--See the recipes for the toppings below. (If you want to create plain focaccia, drizzle with 1 more T. of oil and season with sea salt/course salt and pepper.)
8) Bake in the middle rack in a 450-degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until a lovely golden brown.
9) Serve immediately, or serve cold. Delicious either way!

Fig and Bacon Focaccia (with some Manchego Cheese)
7-9 fresh figs
3-4 thick-cut gooood bacon (I get Wellshire Farms)
Manchego cheese
sea salt
ground black pepper

1) While the focaccia dough is rising, cook the bacon until it is about 2/3 of the way cooked through. Dice into 1/8-inch pieces.
2) Thinly slice the figs.
3) Before putting the focaccia dough into the oven, evenly top with bacon and figs. (No need to add extra olive oil as when making a plain focaccia!) Add a little salt and a little ground pepper. Then, use a vegetable peeler to make thin peels of manchego to add to the top.
4) Bake following the directions for classic focaccia above.

Onion and Red Bell Pepper Focaccia (with some Parmesan Cheese)
1 large organic onion
1 large organic red bell pepper
1-2 T. butter
fresh rosemary (NOTE: Chop fine and add to the dough before the second rise)
Parmesan cheese
sea salt
ground black pepper

1) Thinly slice the onions and red bell peppers. (Use a mandoline if you have one!) Add the butter to a frying pan on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the onions and cook for a moment or two before adding the red bell peppers. Cook until the onions are translucent and the onions and red bell peppers are just starting to brown.
2) Before putting the focaccia dough into the oven, evenly top with the onions and bell peppers. Add a little salt and a little ground pepper. Then, use a vegetable peeler to make thin peels of Parmesan to add to the top.
3) Bake following the directions for classic focaccia above.

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* I added a little spelt flour for part of the flour, as usual. I can't remember how much exactly, which is why I didn't note it here, but it worked great.
* The recipe is intended to be used in a smaller baking dish, but I prefer the larger sheet pan. That means that the focaccia is a tad thinner, and creates (in my mind) a better balance of carbohydrates and toppings ... so my guests and I aren't just filling up on refined carbs.
* The shaved cheese is great! First of all, I think it is in keeping with the principle of simple dishes, simple food. Second of all, it allows for the flavor of cheese without inundating the dish in a layer of dairy-based cholesterol.
* The bacon I use is a bit expensive, but it's worth it! It's family owned, and it's free of preservatives, nitrates, nitrites, and antibiotics. I use only a little, and I use it rarely. Saves my budget, saves the Earth, saves my heart valves. But dicing it small, as in this recipe, means I get a nice taste of savory bacon every couple bites, which is perfectamundo!

Here are more pictures from the process.

Here are a couple pictures of the focaccia with toppings before going into the oven.



Now, some pictures of the focaccia fresh from the oven ... pre-sliced.



Piles and piles o' slices of fresh focaccia!

Sunday Clothing Swap with the Ladies: Menu

Last Sunday, I had a few fine dames over to my house for a clothing swap. You know ... First, you and a few friends go through your closets and find those gently-used/good condition clothes you want to donate. Then, you all bring 'em over to a friend's house and find "new" things in each other's stuff. Lastly, all the extras get donated to a Goodwill or local church. It's a fun way to spend a day with friends!

For this past swap, I tried out a few new recipes! Fun.

The menu I came up with was very easy to prepare, with a nice mix of no-fuss items and a couple of foods made from scratch.

Here's the menu for the day.
(***indicates that I'll be posting the recipe here soon)
- Pear and Fig Tart*
- Onion and Red Bell Pepper Focaccia with Rosemary and Parmesan*
- Fig and Bacon Focaccia with Manchego*
- Fresh organic Empire apples picked by a friend who attended and who leased an apple tree from Little Dog Orchards (how cool is that? you can lease your own tree!)
- Hummus and organic carrots (store-bought)
- Crackers and cheese (store-bought)
- An assortment of olives (store-bought)
- Mimosas (hell, yeah)

In addition, I'm lucky enough to know Chef Deb, and she brought over some of her insanely amazing pumpkin cookies (large and small ones) and pumpkin pie cake (with pumpkin cream cheese frosting). Ohhh, mama! Her tasty baked treats can be ordered via her Etsy site; these treats and others can be ordered from Chef Deb's Pastry Shoppe site.

Don't they look delish?

A Little Snackeral: Homemade Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

I never really got America's love of the ice cream cookie sandwich. As a kid, I somtimes got one of those standard ones at the grocery store--you know, rectangular chocolate cookies in waxed paper. Pretty good as a kid on a hot summer day, slurping it up as the ice cream melts and begins to resemble fluff. They serve their purpose well, satisfying my occasional spontaneous sugar-craving-meets-nostalgia sort of needs, but they're nothing I'd ever plan to eat.

So, I never thought that much about ice cream cookie sandwiches. Until last week, when I made some chocolate chip cookies and happened to also buy brilliant Alden's Organic Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream (some of the best ice cream, if you can get it).

Chocolate-Chocolate-Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich
Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips. I can barely type this out without drooling a little over my chin and blouse. Insanely good. Who knew?


2 homemade chocolate chip cookies (I use the recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag)
1 small scoop of slightly soft Alden's Organic Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* Alden's is reasonably priced organic ice cream. Love it! Fewer pesticides or unnecessary antibiotics.
* When I made the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, I used organic eggs (to avoid the unnecessary antibiotics and such), organic all-purpose flour, a little bit of organic spelt flour, and organic sucanat sugar (unrefined brown sugar). All good ways to decrease the pesticide use on farms, in our soil, and in our bodies.
* Funny thing. Normally, I like a bowl of ice cream for dessert. Or, alternately, a few cookies. But both my husband and I found that an ice cream cookie sandwich made with a little bit of ice cream and two small cookies was insanely tasty and insanely satisfying. So, it seems like a crazy splurge, yet we ended up with a smaller dessert portion than normal ... all in all, less cholesterol and fewer fats than if we'd had ice cream or cookies separately! Who'da'thunk'it!

One more picture just cause we finished all the cookies, so these pictures are all I have left ...

Tostones: Three Ways to Plantain Glory!

Tostones, maduros, plantain chips, mofongo ... plantains are like the scheherazade of the vegetable kingdom. They can be made into savory main meals, sweet desserts, baked, boiled, fried, mashed ... endless possibilities.

Yet, somehow I've always managed to screw up cooking with plantains. I've tried. Many times years ago. Then, after many botched attempts, I put the plantain down.

So, when I saw the simple and direct tostone recipe on A Boulder Table, I felt a renewed sense of courage! I'll try it again! Tostones are truly simple to make. I'll get through my weird tostone block! This time with a partner, right there on my computer screen. She tried it! See! I can too.

The Trials and Tribulations, and Ultimately, Great Taste of Tostones
To get myself past my block, I decided to use A Boulder Table's recipe in two ways and try out a traditional tostone recipe--for a total of three ways to make tostones. I worked through my block, and now I have an awesome and easy tostone recipe! This recipe is part of the Taste & Create food blog recipe exchange.


green plantains
organic vegetable oil
salt
bowl of lukewarm salt water

1) Peel the plantains. This is the first step, and it's when I always begin to screw up. But this time I figured it out. (Why did it take me so long? Don't know). When plantains are green, they are more like potatoes. When they are yellow, they are more like bananas. So, green plantains need to be peeled like potatoes are peeled ... with a peeling knife.
2) I sliced the tostones three different ways: really thin (about 1/8 of an inch), thin and at an angle julienned (about 1/8-1/4 of an inch), slightly thicker and at an angle julienned (1/3 of an inch).
3) Batch 1: These were a little thinner than A Boulder Table's Tostones
I heated about 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and started with the really thin slices (1/8-inch). I cooked them on medium heat, about 3 minutes per side, until brown. I put on them on paper towels to drain, and sprinkled them with salt while they were still hot.
4) Batch 2: These were a about as thin as A Boulder Table's Tostones
I add a little bit more oil to the pan and added the medium-thin slices (1/8-1/4 inch). I cooked them on medium heat, about 3 minutes per side, until brown. I put on them on paper towels to drain, and sprinkled them with salt while they were still hot.
5) Batch 3: These were the traditional tostones
While cooking batches 1 and 2, I'd soaked the traditional tostones (about 1/3 inch thick) in a bowl of lukewarm salt water. Once batches 1 and 2 were done, I drained these from the water, added a touch more oil to the pan, threw these in, and stood back (water pops on a hot oiled pan--ouch!). I cooked them on medium-low heat, about 4 minutes per side. Once pulled from the heat, I smashed them gently with the flat end of a meat tenderizer. Then, they go back into the hot pan for about 2-3 more minutes per side until golden brown. Again, when done, they go on some paper towels and get a light dusting of salt.

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* Okay, generally foods cooked in oils can be higher in fat. But with a touch of patience, I think they can be made a little healthier. How does the patience factor in? I need to have patience to actually allow the pan to heat up a touch before adding the plantains. This allows them to hit the hot pan instead of absorbing oil while the pan heats up. Also, I need to have patience to allow them to drain on the paper towels before eating them all!
* Organic oil, organic oil! I mentioned my love and reasoning to spend the extra $$ on organic oil in my first post.

Here are more pictures from the process.

My neighborhood is full of great padanderias and Latino restaurants. Normally, when I want tostones, I buy them and end up standing at the counter and wait while they cook. But since I was making my own, I picked myself up some nice treats at the panaderia as a snack while they tostones cooked.


All three styles together in one photo!



Batch 1--turned out more like plantain chips--thin, crispy, savory, yumness.



Batch 2 (via A Boulder Table)--good texture and flavor--an awesome & quick tostone recipe!



Batch 3 (traditional tostone recipe I got when visiting Puerto Rico)--delicious, a little more caramelization--a tried and true recipe for night's when I have the energy to cook them the traditional way



Go here www.tasteandcreate.com for more info about Taste & Create.

Check Out These Melons! (Watermelon & Lemon Granita)

Mmm, watermelon. The Hub doesn't like watermelon, so I often find summer watermelons pass me by as I do not want to buy slices of watermelon on those awful Styrofoam grocery store plates wrapped in yards of plastic wrap.

But this year, I found mini-watermelon! How cute! I adore them. I bought two. One to eat plain as is, and one to play with. This is the recipe I came up with. I used the empty halves as bowls. Again, how cute! In the end, the husband dug this dessert and liked watermelon for the first time.

Watermelon & Lemonade Granita
Insanely cold and refreshing. With a texture like snow!


1 small organic watermelon
1 cup lemonade
1/2 a lime

1) Scoop out the watermelon, and pick out the black seeds.
2) Mash the watermelon with a potato masher or fork, or you can use a blender. (If you want really fine-textured granita, strain once you've finished mashing. I like chunks of frozen watermelon, so I did not strain.)
3) Add the lemonade. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime. Mix together.
4) Pour into a shallow metal container, such as a baking dish. Put in the freezer.
5) Check in every half hour or so, and use a fork to scrape into a texture like snow.
6) If you want to, serve in the emptied halves of the mini watermelon. Just be sure to slice off a little of the ends of each half to create a flat area on which the watermelon bowl can sit and stay balanced.

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* There's no need for extra added sugar. If you buy a nice organic lemonade, then it will probably be sweetened with agave. If you don't have lemonade, then you can make your own with the juice of one lemon, a two-thirds cup of water, and agave to taste (start with a teaspoon).
* There's no cooking! So the main energy used here is with the freezer.
* It's low in calories with tons of vitamin A and vitamin C. Check out the nutritional analysis of watermelon here.

Here are more pictures from the process.

My lovely green baby...


Nice watermelon flesh, firm but tender. I sliced little coins off the ends so my watermelon bowls would sit still in a balanced way.


Watermelon bowls almost complete!



The mixture after it's been frozen and scraped into granita...



A nice bowl of dessert!



A close-up.