TBT - Easter

The Easter Bunny is a weird one.  I get that both rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility, but together?  No sense.  We should all go Aussie style and have the Easter Platypus.  Is that a thing?  I suppose I could Google it, but I'm lazy and far happier believing it is a thing, because the Easter Platypus is awesome.

 



Finnegan is saddened by chocolate holidays.  He feels they are discriminatory.

Anyhoo, the whole confluence of weird that is zombie Jesus, fertility festivals, painted eggs and Easter Platypuses/ Platypi/Platypodes makes for some brain twisting magic.  However, any holiday that gives you days off and chocolate is a friend of mine, regardless of root.




I loved the hunt.  And the chocolate.

Growing up, my sister and I weren't often the recipients of treats (no mom, banana chips don't count), and those treats that we did get were hoarded and rationed by yours truly so that I could get some sugary satisfaction every day, in between the seasonal mother loads of Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas.  But Easter was the most fun.  Painting the eggs was fun.  Trying to find them hidden in the plants and behind cushions (how long should eggs be out of the fridge once cooked?), and following the trail of jelly beans and chocolate eggs to find solid chocolate bunnies was the best!





I'm still a pretty big fan of magic, and an even bigger fan of sweet treats.  Guess I'll have to pull my apron on this weekend an bake me some platypus cupcakes.  I'll bet I can find them on Pinterest.

Happy Easter, in whatever form you celebrate it!
xo
s.

From Real Simple, April 2013.  I made the following adjustments:
remove 1 1/2c. APF, and add:
1/2c. brown rice flour
1/2c. quinoa flour
1/2c. coconut flour
remove cream cheese, and add
Tofutti "better than cream cheese" in equal amount.
To decorate, I iced and rolled cupcake in shredded, sweetened coconut,
used a jelly bean for the nose and chocolate chips for the eyes.  For the ears,
I split a hand made marshmallow, and dipped the sticky side in lavender sugar.

Monday's Frugal Menu

A cold (in fact, ice dammed) reality check has us facing some leaner times.  We hope the vast majority of our winter ice damage will be covered by insurance, but our delightfully quirky old house is sure to have some stories and surprises behind the sodden walls.  If we're lucky, in some places, the insulation will simply be insufficient.  In other places, it likely doesn't exist, and in still others, it could be old seaweed, a common insulation material used in NS around the time the original parts of the house were built.

 

So, I was inspired by different (and cheaper) cuts of meat, canned tomatoes, dried lentils/peas, which along with healthy doses of leftovers will be on the menu for the next few months as we try to squirrel away some pennies to cover our winter loses.

 

Sunday - Pollo alla cacciatorra Jamie's Italy.  I use rice flour for dusting the chicken. A divine dish, bursting with flavour.

 

Monday - Tuna Melts.  An old favourite.  To make mine, I dice up some of my homemade garlic/dill pickles, stir in some salt, pepper, Frank's, and cage-free lemon-caper mayo.  I top Jeff's with mozzarella and mine with Daiya dairy-free cheddar. A little salad on the side, and we're in comfort food central!

 

Tuesday - Pig and Pea Soup from Michael Smith. I've adjusted this slightly over time...I use the slow cooker for mine.  8 cups of water with chicken bouillon cubes, one big old ham hock right in the pot with the onions and carrots, 2 tsp dried thyme, 2 bay leaves and a tsp of garlic powder.  I do not use celery (it goes funky in the slow cooker), and I tend not to use fresh garlic, as it can leave a metallic taste if used in the slow cooker.  About 10 minutes before I'm ready to serve, I fish the ham hock out, peel away the skin and fat, remove the bones and shred the meat, returning it to the pot with a cup of thawed fresh peas.  I also stir in a Tbsp of Dijon mustard instead of the vinegar.  I don't add extra pig...the ham hock is plenty rich, but I guess if you're feeling really swine-ish, bacon does make things better.

 

Wednesday - Butternut Squash, Pear and Chestnut Salad from the Healthy Foodie. 

The true glory of the feast cannot be captured in pixels.

 

Thursday - Slow Cooker Pear and Raisin Pork Loin Roast from the Healthy Foodie.  Hot damn.  In her post, Sonia claimed that upon her first taste she proclaimed to her dogs that she is a 'true, profound, culinary genius'.  I also do this on a regular basis...and this dish is very worthy of such proclamations.  Spend the time to marinate.  Spend the time to make the gravy.  The leftover salad from Wednesday complemented the meat perfectly. 

 

Friday - Glorious leftovers.

 

Saturday - One Pot Turkey Chili with Cornbread Crust.  This is all about the smoked paprika.  Make sure you have some in stock.  Some changes I've made to the recipe: chickpeas instead of beans and, one package of Bob's gluten-free corn bread...taking easy to a whole new level.  I also used the Daiya cheddar to top. (I let the batter rest for an hour before putting it on the chili and in the oven, it makes a big difference).  For dessert, I made my gluten-free version of Chocolate Diablo Cookies.

Until next Monday, happy cooking!
xo
s.

Backyard Beerfest for the gluten-free

The first time I ordered a decaffeinated soy latte, the barista dubbed it a "why bother". I was 16, visiting Vancouver and it was the first time I had ever seen soymilk on a restaurant menu. I was a little bit embarrassed, as teenagers often are when singled out, but in the intervening years, have seen many a decaffeinated soy latte order, regardless of actual need.

I don't care about what's 'good' for me...one could get whiplash from trying to figure out which side of the fence wine or butter or chocolate, eggs etc are currently situated. I care about how things taste and how things make me feel. Gluten and dairy make me feel bad. Really bad; for days bad. Excruciating pain, vomiting, diarrhea, migraines, eczema and so on and so forth. I then have to go on a bland diet to reset my body. All in all, the whole process from reaction to recovery takes 2-3 weeks.  If I were a caribou, the wolves would have taken me decades ago.

Thankfully, I am not.  And beyond being a relatively productive member of the herd, I have a knack for preparing lichen in a way that all the other caribou crave.  Okay, that analogy is going nowhere.  Bluntly, I am a good cook.  I’ve been forced by necessity to become a good cook, and I also love to cook.  Cooking is another of my favourite creative endeavours.  Have you seen Ratatouille?  There’s that scene where Remy is having a psychedelic taste bud trip:

Yeah, I get that. Food and drink are two of the most powerful experiences that engage all of the senses.  And free of caffeine or dairy or gluten does not mean free of taste or decadence or psychedelic taste bud trips.

On Friday, Jeff and I hosted a little gathering to celebrate the temporary return of one of our migrant friends back to the herd (I apparently have ungulates on the brain today). In honour of the visit, we decided to arrange a less crowded, more cost effective beer festival then the one run on the same day, downtown.  Now, a beer festival may not seem like the most brilliant of themes for a gluten-free individual, but it is one of the few environments where this type of event was safe for me.

Jeff is pretty serious about the whole beer thing.  He’s growing hops in the backyard and he brews his own.  We call it Long Dog Brewing, after Mr. Finnegan. He’s had some hits and he’s had some misses.  By far, the biggest miss was not really his fault – it was a kit.  And it was meant to be a nice gesture.  The beer was called Silly Yak, which was rice based.  The problem with most gluten free beers is that they are outrageously sweet.  This one took it to another level.  Completely undrinkable.  Bless his heart, once he got comfortable with creating his own recipes and preparing his own malt, Jeff decided to try his hand at gluten free once again.  This time, he sprouted and roasted quinoa and used sorghum syrup.  The result is Long Dog Brewing’s Quinoaaaa?, and it’s pretty darn tasty.  It’s also pretty awesome that I have my own home tap!

Jeff’s next endeavor will be to try to make a homemade cider.  Nova Scotia grows some delicious apples, and from them, some phenomenal ciders have been created.  I grew up in BC, and my experience with ciders centered on 2litre pop bottles filled with crazy-sweet, fruit flavoured sparkling sugar water from the Okanagan.  My teeth and brain hurt just thinking about them.  But much like a good sparkling wine, a proper cider is restrained in its sweetness.  Hopefully this fall, Long Dog Brewing will move into the cider game.  Until that time, I have the list of the tasty ciders I experienced during our Backyard Beerfest. 

Who	Where	What
Finnebara	Ireland	Dry Cider
Bulwarks	Nova Scotia	Berry Blush Cider
Bulwarks	Nova Scotia	Traditional Cider
Ship Builders	Nova Scotia	Cider
Weston’s Old Rosie	England	Cloudy Cider
Weston’s WlydWood	England	Organic Pear Cider

Happy Backyard Tasting!

Xo

s.