Helen

Pina Colada Jello Cloud Smoothie

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Eat Jello for breakfast! Dissolved gelatin makes this protein shake taste dessert. It is lightly sweet with a fluffy, smooth mouthfeel.

  • 1 raw egg (free range, not conventional)
  • 2 T coconut oil or coconut cream
  • 2 T heavy whipping cream
  • 2 rounded tablespoons (T) whey powder
  • 1 T dextrose (or slightly less table sugar)
  • 1 T gelatin dissolved in 2 T cold water
  • 2 T boiling water
  • 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks

Pour boiling water over gelatin-cold-water mix; stir. Combine all ingredients in a small blender. Enjoy immediately. Due to the acid in the pineapple, letting it sit will eventually turn the smoothie to liquid.

Lemon Gelatin

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Last week, my mother-in-law Julia told me that her niece Julie read that eating gelatin is good for your bones, hair and skin. She came over the next day and gave me a container of plain gelatin powder. I feel stronger just looking at. Here is a convenient way to eat gelatin:

Cook up a bowl of lemon gelatin, set it on your counter and dip into it throughout the day. Add it to tea, broth or smoothies, or sweeten it for a Jello dessert. Do not microwave it. Apparently microwaving alters the molecular bonds of the amino acid proline in an undesirable way.* I suggest you not cook gelatin plain because it will stink up your house. Hence, the lemon. And who doesn’t love lemon Jello?

  • 1 cup cold water
  • 2 tablespoons plain gelatin
  • juice of 1 small lemon or 1/2 of a medium-large lemon

Let mixture sit for a minute to dissolve. Stir. Boil for 1 minute. Pour into a small bowl and leave it on the counter all day. Take a scoop of it out throughout the day, drop it in boiling water, and stir. You can add dextrose for a sweet lemon drink, or add the gelatin syrup to just about anything.

Go easy on gelatin intake at first, because your gut needs time to get used to it. Too fast makes you gassy, and who wants that? I started with 1/2 tablespoon a day, and that felt perfect. I am presently eating one per day, and I plan to increase my daily intake to three tablespoons per day. (I have read 3-6 tablespoons is fine, but don’t take my word for it — do the research.) Below is a link to an excellent article on the health benefits of gelatin.

*http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/why-broth-is-beautiful-essential-roles-for-proline-glycine-and-gelatin/

Glorious Chocolate Ice Cream

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This extra-creamy ice cream has the texture of frozen mousse. I’m saving the current batch in my freezer for you, beloved friends and family, but I can only hold out so long! Come by for a visit, and I’ll serve you up a bowl.

  • 1/2 cup dextrose (or 1/3 cup table sugar)
  • 7 oz (1/2 can) coconut milk, stirred (160 g)
  • 2 squares unsweetened chocolate (28g)
  • 3 *egg yolks, blended
  • 160 g whipping cream (or more coconut milk)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 egg whites, beaten
  • 1/4 cup corn syrup

Caramelize dextrose on stove, but just barely. Unlike sucrose, glucose caramelizes quickly and can easily turn bitter. When liquid just turns from clear to light brown, add coconut milk and chocolate. (For a less dicey process, either just heat the dextrose till it melts or caramelize table sugar instead.)

Spoon hot mixture one large spoonful at a time into a medium-sized bowl containing egg yolks, stirring each time.

Stir in whipping cream, beaten egg whites, corn syrup and vanilla. Place mixture in fridge to chill.

Place chilled mixture in ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture for a time, then beat it, then freeze it, then beat it, and so on until it reaches the right consistency.

*I only use raw eggs from pasture-raised hens, never from conventionally raised hens. If you are serving this ice cream to people with vulnerable immune systems, cook the chocolate egg yolk mixture for five minutes (and cool before proceeding to next step), and leave out the egg whites and corn syrup altogether.

 

 

Gluten-Freedom Chocolate Cupcakes

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Rich, dark and glazed. Couldn’t get much better. Hard to believe they’re gluten-free!

Cupcakes

1. Mix well:

  • 100 g unsweetened baking chocolate bar, melted
  • 3/4 of a 14 oz can coconut milk, stirred
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons *vanilla
  • 1 cup dextrose (or ~7/8 cup table sugar)

*I prefer the flavor of Mexican, Jamaican or Dominican Republic vanillas

2. Combine, then mix into wet ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup nutmeal
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons teff flour (or buckwheat flour)
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Nutmeal

Grind equal parts (all together) till fine:

  • flax seeds
  • raw pumpkin seeds
  • buckwheat kernels

Or use any of these: lentils, almonds, walnuts, cashews.

3. Bake at 350F in a stone muffin pan for 20-25 minutes. Cool. Apply glaze or frosting,  or both!

Chocolate Glaze

  • 50 g unsweetened chocolate bar
  • 50 g virgin coconut oil, *coconut cream, or butter
  • 50 g dextrose (or corn syrup)

Melt chocolate on low. Stir in coconut oil and dextrose until dextrose dissolves. Remove from heat.

*Skimmed from the top of a can of coconut milk, full fat.

Mocha Buttercream Frosting

Adapted from “Mocha Butter Cream” in the The Creative Cooking Encyclopedia

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 4 oz cream cheese
  • 1 cup dextrose (or powdered sugar)
  • 1 tablespoon cold espresso
  • 1 square unsweetened chocolate bar, melted and cooled

Cream butter and cream cheese with electric mixer. Add espresso and chocolate; beat until smooth. Add dextrose until desired consistency and sweetness have been reached.

 

 

 

Tamale Pie

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If you know my sister Katherine, you know I have an enthusiastic ghost writer here. If you don’t know her, you’re missing out.

My beloved sister Katherine and her husband, Tom, were visiting from Tucson. She was war-torn over fixing dinner one night because she hates to cook, and I mean hates to cook. She knew she had to do it, though, and was bemoaning her fate to me. I pulled out a freshly prepared tamale pie, gave it to her, and told her how to properly bake it–fry it even, for a sure hit, which it was. She served it with left-over salad from the night before. No one was the wiser. Katherine has thanked me several times over since, and seems to be whining for more pre-made heavenly dinners that she can readily heat and serve.

Katherine notes that she hates to plan meals. She hates to shop for meals. She hates to shop for groceries of any kind. She hates to prepare, cook, chop. She hates a lot of things, I’ve noticed. She likes to eat, but she isn’t as crazy about it as she notices other people seem to be. Except for this pie. Try it for yourself. If it appeases and pleases my sister Katherine, well, I must be doing something right.

Recipe to follow. Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can find all the ingredients here at Oil and Salt. Look up “Tamales,” and assemble the ingredients into a pie. Use Scotty’s Masa for the crust, top and bottom. Bake for 45-60 at 350F.

Oh, Katherine says the stoneware pan I used was key to the crispy masa crust. She said she learned how to turn on the oven, too.

 

Refried Beans

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Don’t be dismayed by the lack of fancy ingredients in these refried beans. Pinto beans don’t need dressing up any more than an old pair of jeans. They are a main attraction in themselves. Serve them with nicely browned tortillas.

  • 2 cups dry pinto beans
  • 8 cups water

Cook beans in a pressure cooker (45 minutes) or the long way on the stove until just right. Drain and set aside most of the broth.

  • 3-4 tablespoons olive or canola oil
  • salt

Heat wide, flat saucepan on stove. Pour in oil. Pour in beans and a cup or two of bean broth. Salt to taste (be generous). Cook for 10 minutes, or until the beans begin to get creamy. Remove from heat and let cool. They’ll get even creamier and tastier as they sit in the bowl at the table.

I don’t know the history of the ‘re’ in refried beans, but once or twice fried tastes the same to me. If you make enough beans for leftovers, fry ’em up!

End note: When I was a kid, I loved to ladle out the bean broth from the top of the beans and salt it, drinking it ladle by ladle. You’ll have more broth than you can use for the beans. Refrigerate the extra, and drink it later salted and heated.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Pie

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The coconut milk is what gives this pie a cow-dairy-like mouth feel. The tasty GF graham crackers are a good substitute for the usual wheat pastry crust, a GF version of which I haven’t yet managed to pull off. See “Pie Crust” for a tasty wheat flour crust.

For the Filling (recipe in progress 10.30.14)

  • 15 oz + 7.5 oz canned pumpkin
  • 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs
  • 12 oz coconut cream (sans liquid in the can) or *cow cream
  • 1 cup dextrose (or 3/4 cup sugar)
  • 1/4 cup real maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

*1/2 whipping cream and 1/2 half-and-half

For the Crust

  • 100 grams gluten-free graham crackers (try Smoreables brand)
  • 100 grams *nut-seed-meal (e.g., walnuts, pecans, almonds, flax seeds)
  • 3 tablespoons melted salted butter
  • 2 tablespoons powdered dextrose (or 5 teaspoons table sugar)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (if not using salted butter)

*I used 50 g walnuts and 50 g flax meal.

Pour filling into crust. Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean. Cover the crust edges with foil before baking.

Anna and Maddie came home to help us prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Anna and I set out to make pumpkin empanadas, but we used this filling recipe (the dairy version) by mistake. We realized that pumpkin pie filling is liquid, and empanada filling is not. Anna added extra pumpkin, but there was no fixing it. We made a very tasty pie instead.

 

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

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This recipe is an adaptation of the foolproof, yummy Betty Crocker recipe that I grew up with. The salt, sweet and peanut butter flavors are just right in this gluten-free version.

  • 1 cup *dextrose (or 7/8 cup table sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons **molasses
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup salted peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup salted butter
  • 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil or non trans fat shortening
  • 1/4 cup flax meal
  • 1/2 cup ***teff flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (3/4 t. if no salted butter)

Mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients. Blend the two mixtures together. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

*Ratio of fructose to glucose in sugars: dextrose 0-100; sucrose (table sugar) 50-50; HFCS 42-53 or 55-42.

**Barley malt syrup (100% glucose) has the same flavor as molasses but is not GF.

***Or any other flour (like wheat, oat, buckwheat, more coconut). Bob’s Red Mill makes teff flour.

Baked Beans

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These beans make a divine dish for a party or a campout. Topped with a rosette of thin tomato wedges and broiled until blackened around the edges, they’re as pretty as they are tasty. You can add the protein of your choice for a different flavor. Smoked tempeh is a good option.

  • 3 red, orange or yellow bell peppers, diced
  • 2 onions, diced
  • 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Saute until semi-soft.

  • 2  6-0z cans tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons chipotle (or other) hot sauce
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 1/2 cup dextrose powder (or 1/3 cup table sugar)
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
  • bean juice from 2 cans of beans (see below)
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Blend.

  • 4 cans navy beans (or other white bean), drained

Stir together beans, sauce and sauteed peppers and onions. Place in large stoneware bowl. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

  • 1 tomato, sliced into thin wedges

Take the beans out of the oven. Decorate with tomato wedges to fill the top surface. Broil for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are blackened around the edges and the sauce has begun to caramelize on top.

Helen’s note:

We have taken these beans camping for years with the girls and their many cousins. We recently served them at our empty nest party, celebrating 25 years of parenting three lovely daughters (we did it!) and our return to the twosome we created so long ago. In those days, our favorite meal was instant mashed potatoes, blackened hot dogs and canned green beans. You will see after eating these beans that we have been practicing in the kitchen a bit since then.

June 2016 note:

Barbecued Tempeh

My sister Katherine her husband Tomás asked me to convert this recipe to the grilled barbecued tempeh that Scott and I served them on their recent visit when they came to town for the Ragnar race (go, Team What Was I Thinking? !). Here it is:

Make the sauce as described above. Cut the tempeh into slices about 3/8″ thick. Boil them for 15-20 minutes to expand the tempeh. Lay the slices out on a well oiled baking pan. Brush them with sauce and broil. Turn midway through and brush the other side. Broil until just blackened. Enjoy!

 

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