March 5th, 2013
Jump to the Paleo Friendly Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite desserts of all time. I grew up on canned pumpkin puree baked into pies on the three yearly holidays when we had family gatherings. As an adult I quickly switched to home made to avoid the additives, preservatives and toxic chemicals found in canned goods. Pumpkins, like a lot of autumn and winter squashes, have a great shelf life and can be stored and cooked all winter for a boost of nutrition during the months when not too much is naturally growing. I managed to pick one up at the market a couple months ago, but it has been living in my cabinet while I recover from foot surgery. I planned to chop it up for a soup or curry, but I got a craving for pumpkin pie to lift me out of my late winter doldrums. I wanted it to be very low in sugar and sodium, and free of grain products and gluten. While we don’t adhere to a paleo lifestyle in my home, I do find a lot of paleo-themed recipes help force me to find better sources of calories and vitamins than the artificially enriched simple starches that I relied upon heavily in the past. I ended up baking a simple pie filling in an almond flour crust, which turned out to be one of the best pumpkin pies I have ever tasted.
It was perfect, even without whipped cream!
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March 5th, 2013
Jump to the Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk Recipe
Sweetened, condensed milk has long been a mystery to me. In the days before refrigerators were a common household item, evaporating the water from milk and thereby condensing it created a shelf-stable milk product and became one solution to the problem of milk spoiling rapidly outside of the cow. It could be stored on a shelf for months or years and was carried into battle in the rations of the Union army’s soldiers and used to boost caloric intake of refugees in the early 1900s. It could be used straight from the can or mixed with water to make a thinner milk.
And it can be easily made at home!
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February 6th, 2013
This post will end with a recipe for an updated, healthier version of one of my favorite comfort foods – Shepherd’s Pie. I was inspired by Civilized Caveman’s Caveman Casserole recipe but he uses peas and ground turkey – two things I hate! Traditional shepherd’s pie also requires the use of a lot of pots, pans, bowls, and prep utensils. In the interest of saving myself from a long prep time and lots of dishes, I threw together this knockoff revamped Shepherd’s Caveman Pie.
Yum Yum Yum
It took under an hour and satisfied the cravings I’ve been having for a savory, spicy, filling dish. The recipe is down below, but first – the background story!
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July 14th, 2012
Pancakes are one of my favorite things. They go so well with so many different things, they are pretty quick and easy to make, they save well and you can eat them for days if you have made a big batch.
I also have a nostalgic connection to pancakes, from growing up making them with my cousin on camping trips or big family breakfasts.
When I read this recipe for gluten free, grain free pancakes, I was pretty amazed. It doesn’t seem scientifically possible to make anything cake-like without using sugar, flour, or baking soda. I’ve been on a kick to lower my intake of starches and sugars, so I decided to test out this recipe to make myself some comfort food as I recover from being sick.
Yum!
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June 22nd, 2012
I’ve been craving quiche, unwilling to settle for lesser versions, and more unwilling to shell out the $17 for half a 12″ quiche at the french bakery up the road. Even though they are really good. And rich, with a thick crust, lots of butter and cream and cheese….
But I really don’t need to be eating that much quiche, do I?
Anyhow, here’s what I made to satisfy my needs:
It’s so green!
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February 11th, 2012
I do a lot of clicking through to things from various blogs, and I’m usually semi-conscious when I’m browsing the internet, so I occasionally stumble upon little jewels in dusty corners with no breadcrumb trail to lead me back. The other night was one of these nights, when I followed a mystery blog post through to this recipe for egg-free chocolate chip cookies while trying to combat/forget about a migraine, then clicked through to the original recipe at Nibble Dish.
I first want to say that if you are a frequent user of any of those recipe sites that turn up at the top of the first page of your google searches (we are all too lazy to scroll down past the 4th result, let alone click through to page 2), give this site a try. I think the name is a bit ridiculous, to be honest, and almost sounds a little bit like a euphemism.
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January 30th, 2012
I was recently inspired by various places to make gratuitous amounts bone broth by boiling the bones multiple times. In one case, the bones yielded rich, gelatinous broth even after being boiled more than 10 times. I have only ever boiled my bones once and thrown them out, so the idea that they can yield so much more than I’ve been getting out of them is an idea which is simultaneously a bit frustrating (over the past) and a bit daunting (for the future…where will I put all that broth!).
Living alone, I haven’t found myself with an excuse to cook any meat that has bone in it yet, but maybe that day will come at some point. I did, however, discover an lone, forgotten onion sitting in the top of my hanging basket. This sparked my curiosity about multiple-boil vegetable broth.
This is what I used:
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January 25th, 2012
I hated the carrot juice I made last weekend. It wasn’t really carrot juice tbh, but carrot juice just seems to have a tendency to overpower all the nice flavors trying to live in harmony with it, like a 16th century European. I love raw carrots but for me, the juice is just…ugh. The juice was made with apple, pear, tangerine, celery and carrot. And I hated it.
No other flavors, I'm clearly carrot concentrate.
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January 25th, 2012
I’m making a vinegar infusion for a future cleaning concoction.
I love you, vinegar.
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January 20th, 2012
Today it was fairly cold and misty all day, with a light rain that started as I was on my way home from work. I thought it would be perfect soup weather, since I’ve been reading all these blogs about making bone stock (links at the end of the post).
I made potato bacon soup because, well, it’s what I had lying around.
I also got ambitious and made a small loaf of soda bread (the easiest bread in the world).
I used:
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