Maple Roasted Pecans

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh raw pecan halves

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt

1/2 teaspoon Organic Fair Trade Cinnamon

dash Cayenne pepper

Massage ingredients into pecans, spread evenly on baking sheet and bake at 350º for 20 minutes turning once. Remove from baking sheet when done and put in large bowl to cool completely. To discover another recipe idea for Maple Roasted Pecans check out Fabulous Fennel Salad.

A holiday treat anytime of year!

 

 

Maple Pumpkin Pie

1 ½ cups pureed pumpkin

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup whole milk

½ cup maple syrup

1 ¼ tsp cinnamon*

1 ¼ ginger*

¼ tsp nutmeg*

¼ tsp cloves*

(*or 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice)

½ teaspoon salt

1 nine inch, deep dish whole wheat pie crust

Blend all ingredients and pour into pie shell and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 50-60 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

This is an original recipe developed over time out of an undying love of pumpkin pie and a desire to reduce my sugar intake. Since whole wheat pie crusts are not easy to make, I always make at least two at a time and double the recipe for the filling. You can also buy very good whole wheat, spelt or gluten free pie crusts already made in the freezer section of your health food supermarket. When making from fresh pumpkin, cut into chunks and simmer until the skin is soft. This makes them easier to peel. Puree in food processor.

The secret to this pie is the pumpkin itself. The heirloom Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is one of the oldest varieties cultivated in America. Ever since I purchased one in the store and threw the seeds in my compost, they come up every year as volunteers and every year I return the seeds to my compost. And we can thank Ken Ettlinger, a local Long Island seed saver and natural science educator for establishing a regional seed bank in the late 1970's to conserve the genetic resources of Long Island including this variety.

Rich in color, very sweet and arguably the best choice for pumpkin pie I would like to quote D.D. Tooker from an 1855 issue of Michigan Farmer: "The sweet pumpkin or pie squash is the only true article in my opinion for making the most delicious of Yankee notions - pumpkin pie - and I am not alone in my opinions, for I have yet to see the individual who would not agree with me in this matter."

You can purchase seeds and start your own tradition at: Rare Seeds

Awesome Gluten-Free Carrot Cake

Celebrating our daughters is an honor and a blessing. So when my daughter turned 36 this year I offered to make a birthday cake for her celebration. I love to bake but she has become the baker in our family and a master gluten-free baker at that. Since the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree she does credit me with introducing her to alternative flours as a result of my own love of healthy baking. She, however, has taken the art to a whole other level. Baking is in her DNA inherited both from me, and the Italian women on her father’s side.

So when I asked her what kind of a cake she wanted, she replied, “gluten-free, dairy-free*, low sugar, carrot cake with butter cream frosting and no pineapple!” Yum. Carrot cake is one of my favorites and she had given me a challenge. As I began looking in earnest through my shelves of cookbooks and at online recipes I was shocked at how hard it was to find a good, healthy, sheet cake recipe, sin the pineapple and too many cups of sugar. Luckily one of my older cookbooks, The Deaf Smith Country Cookbook: Natural Foods forFamily Kitchens, by Marjorie Winn Ford, originally published in 1973, had a basic recipe that I was able to adjust. This resulted in an awesome carrot cake recipe that will hopefully save you time searching for something better. The gluten-free mix of flours comes directly from my lovely daughter, who as I mentioned earlier, is a master gluten-free baker.

*eggs AOK

Yield: 1 sheet cake (9X13)

4 lg. organic carrots, grated fine (approx. 3 C.)

1 cup organic white rice flour

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons almond meal/flour

¼ cup combination of flax seed meal and coconut flour

½ tsp guar gum

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup golden raisins

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/3 cup cold-pressed sunflower oil

1 teaspoon fair trade cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cardamom

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fair trade vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp aluminum free baking powder

¼ cup almond or coconut milk

Mix dry ingredients separately from wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir well until evenly moistened. Pour into an oiled and floured 9 X 13 cake pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350º. Remove from oven and cool completely on rack before frosting.

Sin-full Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. package of organic cream cheese, softened

½ cup (1 stick) organic butter, softened

Confectioners sugar to taste (approx. 1 cup)

Whip until smooth and creamy. Frost liberally!

Bright & Beautiful Butternut Curry Soup

eeny, meeny, miny, moe

photo by Thea

2 medium butternut cut in half length wise

4 tablespoons peanut oil, or 2 Tbs. sesame oil & 2 Tbs. coconut oil

2 Tbsp. curry powder

2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp red pepper flakes

6 garlic cloves

2 quarts chicken broth

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

juice of 1 lime

sea salt

black pepper

½ cup chopped cilantro

Bake squash face down in baking dish for one hour at 400 degrees.  Let cool.

Meanwhile,  sauté curry powder, ginger, cumin and red pepper flakes until fragrant. Add garlic and sauté until it begins to color.  Remove from heat.

Scoop flesh from squash, discarding seeds, and put ½ in blender with ½ broth and ½ spices.  Process until smooth and transfer into soup pot. Repeat with remaining squash, broth and spices.

Add coconut milk, lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and heat through.  Add cilantro just before serving.

Caribbean Coconut & Pineapple Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

Adapted from Nydia’s Miami Kitchen

Gluten Free

Photo by Thea

Allow me to share with you this Bread Pudding with a Caribbean twist, and bring you back to Nydia’s Miami Kitchen for a rich holiday treat. How could I not? Only a few short weeks ago I found myself in Miami, standing with my daughter, Lorena (Italian for Lauren) in this Priestess’s Kitchen while her husband, Ernesto, served us a visually sensual and intoxicatingly aromatic, sweet dessert worthy of the Goddess, her-self.

Nydia was born and raised in Puerto Rico, so naturally she prefers good Puerto Rican Rum in her budin de piña y coco en salsa de ron.  To this I have added an organic, gluten free twist by replacing the coconut extract with virgin coconut oil, and the salted butter with a re-mineralizing sea salt.

The first place my mind wants to go with a dish like this is, “oh it’s sooo bad!” Why is it that we have become such a guilty food culture? As I thoroughly enjoy this rare treat my mind goes back to my Grandmother's days when eggs were farm fresh, free range and fertile (she owned a chicken farm) and milk was fresh and raw. Sugar is sugar, so there is no getting away from that one. But did you know that sugar in the time of our grandmothers was used mostly as a preservative and for special and rare occasions like this one? It is the daily consumption of large amounts of sugar that robs us of the enjoyment, as is true for any addiction. So, I recommend moderation and the use of natural, raw and organic ingredients whenever possible. Sweet also happens to be the flavor that corresponds with the Earth Element in Chinese Five Element Theory and you can learn the difference between full-sweet and empty-sweet, and more in my online class: Indian Summer: Nourishing the Earth Element.

1 large loaf gluten free bread from organic, non-GMO flours (may be sliced)

5 eggs (preferably fertile)

2 cans organic Coconut milk

2 cups organic whole milk (preferably raw)

1 can organic evaporated milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (preferably fair trade)

1 ¾ cups raw or organic sugar

1 stick organic unsalted butter, melted

½ teaspoon Celtic or Himalayan sea salt

1 15 oz. can pineapple chunks

¼ cup pineapple juice from can

2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil

Sauce:

2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons organic white rice flour

1 cup organic whole milk

1 cup organic whipping cream

½ cup organic or raw sugar

¼ cup Puerto Rican Rum

• Grease one deep dish baking pan with coconut oil

• Cut bread into 1 inch squares and place in large mixing bowl.

• To make custard: beat eggs well, add one at a time beating well after each addition; evaporated milk, coconut milk, and whole. Add vanilla, sugar and melted butter beating well after each addition. Once custard is ready stir in pineapple juice. Mix well. Pour custard over bread in large mixing bowl and let soak for 5 minutes. Pour mixture into previously greased baking dish and press pineapple chunks into batter. Bake on a bain-marie (water bath: line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and fill with water for a more delicate texture.)

• Bake at 350 degrees for 1 ½ hours.

• To make sauce: Add flour to melted butter and stir well with wooden spoon* to make a roux. Once thickened add one cup whole milk and mix well. Stir while adding 1 cup whipping cream, ½ cup sugar. Cook at medium heat for a few minutes stirring until it thickens to same consistency of gravy. Drizzle rum while continuing to stir.

• Serve warm with warm rum sauce and coconut icecream.

* I prefer to use wooden spoons to plastic or metal. The spirit of a wooden spoon adds tree medicine to food. I honor these tree ancestors by keeping my wooden spoons well oiled as I do my wooden cutting boards.  These simple things bring life to my kitchen and to my food.

Be sure to watch Nydia making Coconut Pineapple Bread Pudding in her now famous kitchen and learn more about a bain-marie (bagnomaria in Italian!) on her YouTube Channel, Nydia’s Miami Kitchen.