spiced plum preserves

Thursday is fruit day. Well, really it's pay day. Every Thursday after work I deposit my check and get some cash and head to 46th street to get a money order. On my way back to 5th avenue I always visit my friend with the fruit cart.

His fruit is generally better than the other local fruit guys, and he always gives me a good deal. Whatever he has that looks like a good deal, that's what I get and prepare on the weekend.

And so, with fresh-minted money burning a hole in my pocket, I found myself with toting home a half dozen plums to make into preserves to have with my yogurt.

Spiced Plum Preserves

2 Lbs plums
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp orange zest
1/2tsp cardamom
1/8tsp cloves
1tsp vanilla extract
Water
Honey

Wash and dice plums. Place plums in a small saucepan with enough water to cover the bottom. Cook on low heat, stirring frequently, until plums are warmed through. Add spices and continue to simmer until plums break down to desired consistency. Taste mixture and add honey if it is needed. Cool and place in a glass jar or airtight plastic container. Store in the refrigerator.

i voted

This morning I woke up, waited for my turn for the shower, blessedly warm this morning, dressed, ate breakfast with a groggy looking Trainer and left the house. I walked up 89th Street to the corner of 32nd. But instead of passing by good 'ole PS 148 I took a detour. Up the steps, through the huge doors and into the elementary school. Irresistibly I was drawn by the "VOTE HERE" signs.

I haven't been in an elementary school in 15 years, but very little has changed, it even smells the way I remember. I waited on line, proffered my ID and stepped behind the curtain into the ancient machine. One tug of the lever got me ready, with a second tug and satisfying crack my vote was cast. I left with a feeling of self satisfaction at having done my part for the great political machine.

Nothing changed, the earth didn't stand still, work is the same as always. It's very likely that very little will change no matter who is elected. But I made my choice, let my voice be heard.

I VOTED

Did you?

bison chili in a squash bowl

Oh, man! Let's chalk that one up to the folly of youth.

Yesterday the Trainer and I lounged around for most of the day. Between the cup of coffee I really shouldn't have had around 4:30 Saturday and daylight savings time i didn't get much sleep and was pretty zapped by the time we decided to go to the gym. When I shuffled out in the late afternoon to fetch some cinnamon the weather was a perfectly nice fall day.

It didn't occur to me, as I was hauling the bikes out of the basement, that the sun was going to set earlier and that the temperature would drop along with it. I was concentrating to hard on the machines, and then the warm fuzzy feeling I got when the Trainer called me his "strong woman". However, this strong woman forgot her gloves

The ride to the gym wasn't to bad, although my fingers were cold and stiff when we arrived. I prised them from the handle bars and fumblingly help the Trainer with the lock. The ride home, after the sun set, was seriously cold. Riding through Queens in the cold and dark felt like we were doing something forbidden. Besides the frigid fingers it was a great ride. I love feeling my body working, pushing toward my goal.

But, back to those frigid finger. As mush as tried to pull my sleeves down over on fingers, but it's awfully hard to shift and break with your fingers pulled up inside your fleece. I was afraid that I would lose the use of my fingers for the rest of the evening, having suffered from raynauds phenomenon before going gluten free. I was pleasantly surprised that my fingers did not turn white and I did not lose feeling in them for hours. Very exciting! Of course, this does not mean that I'll be running around without gloves all winter.

The best part of the whole ordeal was the bison chili baked in a squash that was keeping warm for me in the oven. A little grated cheese and I had the perfect dark cold night dinner.

Bison Chili in a Squash Bowl

3 smallish acorn squash or pumpkins,
1 Lb ground bison
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, mined
1 carrot, diced
1 large celery stalk, diced
2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt
fresh ground pepper
sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a skillet add the onion, garlic and spices. Saute for about 5 minutes, until onions are tender. Add the carrots, celery and tomatoes, reduce heat and simmer while you prepare the squash.

Wash the outsides and cut the tops off the squash. Try to cut on an angle so that the tops will fit back on, like a jack-o-lantern. Scoop out seeds and pulp, try to get as much pulp out as possible.

Fill each squash as full as possible with chili. Press the chili firmly into the squash and fill them completely.

Place tops back on squash and place on a sided baking sheet on pan. Pour enough water into the pan to cover the bottom.

Bake for 45 minutes

Allow to cool for several minutes and garnish with grated sharp cheddar cheese.

*Eat the squash along with the chili, the contrasts in tastes is amazing! If you aren't going to bake the chili in the squash I recommend peeling, dicing and cooking the squash along with the rest of the chili.

squash pikelets

Several weeks ago Jacqui posted her banana pikelets, a little something she mixed up for her brood. A few days later, the Trainer requested something new and special for a breakfast we were going to have together. I mixed up her recipe with hazelnut flour and an egg in stead of orange juice. They immediately became part of our routine.

Friday evening the Trainer requested banana pikelets to take with him to the gym Saturday morning. When I reached for the banana basket, it was empty and I had some quick thinking to do. The Trainer okayed the experimental use of leftover kabucha squash for his pikelets. (By the way, I love this new term for fat little pancakes, I expect that I'll be using it quite a bit in the future) So I threw together thse little squash pikelets for the Trainer and he immediately deemed them good enough to post.

Squash Pikelets

3/4-1 cup cooked squash
1/2 cup nut flour
1 egg
splash vanilla
cinnamon
nutmeg

mash all the ingredients together with a fork

spoon onto a heated griddle and cook until both sides are golden brown

the pomegranate

No art historian can speak of early renaissance illuminated manuscripts with out uttering these three words: jewel tone colors. We students feverishly wrote this down over and over in our notebooks and dutifully spit it back out in classroom discussions and essay questions.

It always made sense to me. All the slides we were shown had vivid colorings; rich blues, verdant greens, bleeding scarlet and glittering gold. I knew the printed photographs in our books and the slides in our lectures barely did justice to the actual works, and yet they were still astounding.

In the lounge of our Gothic dormitory, my friend K introduced me to the pomegranate. The moment I held one of those tart scarlet seeds, I knew what a jewel tone was. As a student of art and jewelry I knew the color of gems; richly saturated with the play of light within. Never before had I seen a color like this fruit.

The flavor of the seeds are equally multi-faceted. Sweet and tart, red and white, sparkling across the tongue.

I knew about pomegranates long before I started eating Ks. When Hades kidnapped Persephone, Demeter was so distraught she allowed all the green things to stop growing. In order to restore life to the plants Zeus went to retrieve Persephone from the Underworld. She could return to her mother only as long as she had eaten no food of the Underworld. But Persephone had eaten half of a pomegranate and Zeus decreed that she would spend half the year with her mother and half the year with Hades. The seasons we know are said to come from Demeter's joy and grief.

The Roman's thought that pomegranate seeds had contraceptive qualities. The ancient Assyrians and Egyptians ate them. Pomegranates are symbolic in Judaism and Christianity and appear in art and family crests. They are one of Buddhism's three holy fruits. Each little seed is a tangy, juicy bite of history.

In her book, gluten-free girl, Shuana has a recipe for pomegranate molasses braised chicken thighs. I love the way she writes and her creativity with food and I was intrigued by this pomegranate molasses. I assumed that it was some type of molasses infused with pomegranate. Something that I was pretty sure I couldn't eat.

Upon doing research, probably while I ought to have been working, I discovered that pomegranate molasses was simply a very thick syrup made from pomegranate juice and sugar. That is something I can handle.

I decided to do things the hard way and picked up six pomegranates from the fruit cart near my office. I opened the pomegranates one by one, popping the seeds out in a bowl of water. The seeds sink and the pith floats, making separation easier. I briefly ran the seeds through the blender, in batches, to break the skins. I then pushed the pulp through a cheese cloth sieve with a spoon, collecting the juice and discarding the seeds. And then I made my molasses.

This was certainly a time consuming process, and not necessarily any less expensive that buying the pomegranate juice, but there is a certain satisfaction one gets from holding up the finished product and saying "I made this, from start to finish, with my own hands".

pomegranate molasses

3 cups pomegranate juice
4 tbsp honey

In a small sauce pan slowly heat the pomegranate juice and mix in the honey. Simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced to about 3/4 of a cup.

See? That was easy! Although it does take several hours, it's totally worth it if you can't use the store bought kind.

pork and fennel stuffed apples

Lately I feel like we're stuck in the intermezzo of Monty Python's "Holy Grail", the season flip-flopping willy-nilly, confusing our bodies and wardrobes. (thankfully, I have not yet been forced to eat Robin's minstrels) Last week we plunged into winter, bright nippy days that had to be faced with long coats and scarves. Today it is decidedly, gloomily fall. Big fat raindrops are being blown through on an icy wind. Weather that drives even the hardiest New Yorkers indoors. It is time for comfort food.

Lately I have been craving something sweet and savoury, like Sunday morning sausage sopping up the last of the maple syrup. Something juicy on my tongue. A mix of unexpected flavors to spice up a cold evening awaiting the Trainer's arrival. A meal to take me home.

Last Sunday I joined S and her husband for a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to take a gander at the DUMBO Farmer's Market. A small affair with a guy who sells fantastic, organic, SCD 'legal' roasted nuts and nut butters. The apple seller's table was piled high with red, gold and green offerings, juicy slices teasing my tongue. I picked out some fantastic Gala apples and another type I have never tried before. I'm embarrassed to admit I've forget it's name: Sugarcrisp perhaps. This large golden green gem was just to beautiful to eat with disregard, it needed special attention.

Our apple tree at home offered up copious amounts of small, sweet heirloom apples, perfect for baking and apple sauce, not quite up to our antiseptic culture's idea of an eating apple. Whatever these little guys lack in polished appearance they make up for in flavor. Every fall we picked them from the tree, gathered the windfall and retired to the kitchen to 'process'. The largest apples were always saved for baking, cored and stuffed with oatmeal, cinnamon and clove while the smaller ones were turned into apple sauce.

All winter long Mom always served her pork tenderloin with our homegrown applesauce, to great critical acclaim. Not having the means to make such lovely sauce I stewed and chewed on this combination of pork and apples. Looking at my beautiful local apple I knew what to do with it. Instead of cooking the pork tenderloin with fruit in the middle, I would cook the apple with the pork in the middle.

Since I was cooking this for one, I made the pork stuffing, stuffed my lone apple, and cooked the rest of the pork in a separate dish. This combination would make a great stuffing for chicken or turkey as well.

Pork and Fennel Stuffed Apples

for three stuffed apple:

9 oz pork tenderloin, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup diced fennel bulb
1/4 cup diced yellow onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large sweet apples
salt
cinnamon
cloves

Prepare the stuffing by mixing the pork, fennel, onion, garlic and salt to taste. Allow to sit at room temperature while preparing the apples

Preheat oven to 425 F

Wash the apples and cut the top third off. Scoop the flesh of the apple out of both top and bottom, using a small paring knife or grapefruit spoon. Leave about 1/4 inch of flesh with the skin. Coat the inside of the apples with ground cinnamon and cloves.

Arrange the apples in ramekins or in a small baking pan. Fill the apples with the pork stuffing, packing well, pile the stuffing so that it fills the top of the apple as well. Mix the apple flesh with any remaining pork stuffing and fill an additional ramekin.

Bake for 45 minutes.

go ahead honey... it's gluten free! indigenous foods

venison* and a new england fall fruit egg bake

When I proposed indigenous foods for this month's "Go Ahead Honey... It's Gluten Free!" I was thinking of all the wonderful New World foods that the Americas have to offer. I wanted to encourage research into what food stuff are native to an area. I wanted to have an idea of what people were preparing here 600 years ago. Before the arrival of the Dutch and English what were the natives of Manhattan Island and New England harvesting and storing for the winter.

Corn, fruits, berries, game and seafood I discovered. Apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and cranberries to name a few that we still enjoy. Others are lost to history or only found wild in the woods.

On the New England coast fish were a staple and shellfish abound. The clambake is a tradition adopted from the natives. At thanksgiving every school child hears the story of Squanto, the native who taught the newcomers to plant each seed with a fish to fertilize it.

In the wooded areas game was plentiful. I expect anything that could be caught could be eaten. I must confess I had a desire to cook venison when I formulated this month's theme.

The natives of this area dried fruits, berries and nuts for the winter, to be eaten along with smoked meats, stews and pemican.

After dutiful research and a thorough brain wracking my New England Fall Fruit Egg Bake was born. Mixing squash, apples and New England's fall favorite: cranberries. An experiment with good ingredients that turned out wonderfully, great as a side, elevenses or even dessert. In the spirit of authenticity, I attempted to dry my own cranberries with partial success, not having a dehydrator at my disposal.

New England Fall Fruit Egg Bake

1- apple, sliced
1/4- baked squash, about 1/2 cup
1/4- cup dried unsweetened cranberries
1- tbsp dark honey
6- eggs or egg whites
Sea salt
Butter, oil or fat to grease skillet

•Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease cast iron skillet, pie pan or baking dish

•Arrange apple slices to cover the bottom of the dish.

•Sprinkle dried cranberries over apple slices.

•In a blender, whiz the squash, eggs and a liberal pinch of sea salt.

•Slowly pour egg mixture over apples and cranberries

•Bake for 30 minutes or until firm.

While the torte was in the oven I managed to trip the circuit in my electrically challenged apartment when I started to heat my electric grill to cook the venison. The frittata had to finish cooking itself in the preheated oven, but after a trip down to the basement, flashlight in hand, the power was restored and I was able to finish cooking the meal.

The venison was simple to cook, 4 minutes in my grill at 400 F was just rare enough for me. The sweet frittata was a perfect compliment to the flavorful, hearty meat.

*Those of you who are squeamish, please turn away, but I must get this out of my system. Yes! Yes, I had Bambi for dinner, he was delicious, and I make no apologies!


Sent from my iPhone

the ice dream cookbook

Just as I was headed for Alaska, I was offered a chance to review Chef Rachel Matesz's new dessert cookbook The Ice Dream Cookbook. I was intrigued by the concept of making frozen desserts from coconut milk using agave and stevia rather than sugar. It sounded like the recipes would be very close to SCD compliance than many others.

I was very excited when the book arrived and set out to read it right away. Despite the fact that it is a dessert book, the Trainer was impressed by it as well. Chef Rachel does a wonderful job explaining everything. She gives detailed information about all of her ingredients, their uses and nutritional benefits. She writes a very informative section on gluten free grains alone which is probably the most comprehensive and useful I have seen in one place.

After reading the book I was presented with a challange: while I could easily make the base 'custard', slightly modified for SCD, I don't have an ice cream maker. This is not a kitchen tool that I can buy and hide easily. I am running out of places to store tools, and the Trainer would surely figure out what it was. In stepped by wonderful new friend S along with her kitchen and ice cream maker.

On my day off I was able to prepare the base on the sly, without the Trainer poking his nose in and asking questions. I wanted to start with a simple recipe before trying anything too fancy. As much as I love vanilla, I decided that I really wanted cinnamon. After spending my whole afternoon preparing burgers and other foods I was about to sit down and relax when I realized I had completely forgotten to prepare the Ice Dream. I dashed around the kitchen, expecting the Trainer to walk in at any moment, and prepared the vanilla recipe with some added cinnamon. I finished just in time, tucking the container of base safely into the back of the fridge just as the Trainer walked in the door.

Saturday, with S, we set the Ice Dream to churning before we heated up the kitchen with our little bake-a-thon. The result was a creamy, delicious icy treat. I could definitly taste the coconut, but the flavor was mild. My result was a bit icy, but S and I think we left it to churn to long. The only change I made to make the recipe SCD was to use a little extra honey instead of stevia (which is not permitted)

I left some of the Ice Dream with S, brought some to my coworker whose son is lactose intollerant and managed to make my remaining portion last several days.
I will be making this again, although I think it was a little early for me to introduce coconut into my diet. When the weather warns up again I will try making my own SCD coconut milk to try more flavors. I was unable to try any of Chef Rachel's gluten free desserts, since they are so carefully balanced various blends of gluten free flours I did not want to arbitrarily substitute almond meal for everything.

starbucks considering gluten free options

Did anyone else see this email from Starbucks? I made a comment months ago that I would like to see gluten free options at Starbucks, and today I received an email with this newsletter.

stuffed tomatoes save the day

This past Thursday I was fortunate enough to have the day off work for Yom Kippor. I did not fast on this Jewish day of atonement, but I did spend the day in meditation. In the kitchen.

Since it is so unusual for me to have a day off, the Trainer decided to stay home for the morning to spend time with me. His day did not begin so well. He awoke to find that we were out of coffee filters and had to trek out in search of them, finally finding them at the place I would have assumed would his first stop.

While making the coffee he burned his pancake, then tore it up in a pique, muttering how it was going to be such a bad day. I salvaged breakfast with some Tropical Squash Bread from the freezer and things calmed down as we sat with our coffee for a few minutes.

Soon after retreating to our nest it was time to start the special lunch or Bison Stuffed Tomatoes that I had planned for our morning together. I was interrupted in this by the real day saver, thanks to my friends C and J. Knowing that I would be home, C sent me an Edible Arrangement as a belated birthday gift. (J is currently deployed overseas) The Trainer answered the door, and nearly turned the delivery guy away since we weren't expecting anything, let alone a huge bouquet of fruit.

We were so surprised, and the Trainer so impressed, that everything had to stop so that I could open and photograph the masterpiece before the fruit was eaten. This, of course, put me behind in my lunch preparations. On the other hand, it brought us together and I've never seen the Trainer eat so much fruit at one time.

I quickly got back to our lunch, preheating the oven, sauteing the meat, scooping out the tomatoes. All with the Trainer hovering at my shoulder asking when we were going to eat and reminding me that we said lunch would be at 11:30. Never tell a Hungry Man (or as I sometimes call him, my Very Hungry Caterpillar) that something will take 30 minutes in the oven. With hungry masculine selective hearing they hear 30 minutes and can't comprehend the prep time. Luckily I got the tomatoes into the oven and they didn't take as long in the oven as I had estimated.

We enjoyed our lunch, and the Trainer was quite impressed with the stuffed tomatoes. The day was officially saved! I had him to myself for another short hour before he headed to the gym and I got down and dirty making burgers for the next two weeks.

Bison Stuffed Tomatoes

1lb- ground bison meat, or other ground meat
1- red onion, chopped
3- cloves garlic, chopped
6Tbsp- chopped fresh cilantro
1Tbdp- chili powder
1tsp- ground cumin
1tsp- kosher salt
1/2 tsp- fresh ground black pepper
5- large ripe tomatoes
1/3 cup- almond meal
1Tbsp- olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large skillet saute the onion and garlic with a small amount of vegetable oil.

Add the bison meat, 3Tbsp cilantro, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and brwon the meat, breaking it up into small chunks.

While the meat is cooking prepare the tomatoes. Cut of the tops, about 1cm from the base of the stem. Scoop out insides into a bowl. Save the flesh and discard the seeds.

Chop the tomato flesh and tops and add to the meat.

Arrange the tomatoes in a foil lined baking dish.

Fill each tomato as full as possible with the bison mixture. Sprinkle reserved cilantro on top.

In a small bowl toss together almond meal and olive oil.

Top each a tomato with a small amount of almond meal mixture and shake a little salt over the whole pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tomatoes have split thier skins and almond meal topping is toasted light brown.