Granola

In the 70s I made my granola in a tiny gas oven in my camper/breadtruck, a unique vehicle that my first husband and I tooled around in, from lookout tower in Idaho to Priest Lake, Hill's Resort where we worked.  The granola I made then was from organic oats and wheat germ and coconut and raisins and honey and oil.  Now I don't eat granola, because I don't eat oats.  (And I don't eat gluten.)  Many gluten-intolerant folks don't eat oats because they are made on equipment that also makes wheat products.  I, however, am allergic to oats too.  A grass allergy.  Anyway, you can buy oats from companies that only process oats and other grains, but nothing with gluten.  Check it out on the web: http://www.glutenfreeoats.com/shopsite_sc/index.html and Bob's Red Mill.

GRANOLA

3 cups gluten-free rolled oats, Teff, Amaranth 
1 cup slivered organic almonds 
1 cup organic cashews
3/4 cup shredded organic coconut
1/4 cup plus honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 C raisins (add after the granola bakes)

Bake for 1 hour on a cookie sheet, stirring every 15 minutes or until golden at 250.  Enjoy with nut milk.

Grandma's Roasted Chicken in a Bag

Preheat oven to 400.

Wash a whole organic chicken and blot it dry with a paper towel.  Salt inside and out then stuff with a chopped onion and several sprigs of rosemary. Coat the outside of the chicken with paprika and slide it inside a clean paper bag on a cookie sheet.  Close up the bag end making sure the chicken isn't touching the paper.   Bake in the lower part of oven for an hour or so.  Remove and serve inside paper bag on a platter.  Side dishes could include blanched and salted green beans tossed with arugula and dressed with olive oil.  If you can eat cheese, top green bean salad with a little Parmesan.

Tasty and rustic, paper bag and all.  Eat deeply of good food. What more is there to life?     

Garden Marinara

If you have a good growing season in your area and are able to harvest lots of basil, oregano, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, and green beans from your garden,  then try this easy dish--even my kids loved eating their vegetables as a spaghetti sauce.

Ingredients:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add chopped garlic and onions, and saute lightly.  Add chopped green beans, zucchini, and tomatoes and any other vegetables you wish.  Add a can of tomato sauce.  Season with basil, oregano, and sea salt.  Simmer until thick.  Serve this chunky sauce over rice spaghetti.

Option:  Hit the local farmer's market or have one of those vegetable baskets delivered to your door.                                                                                                      

Enjoy!

Photo by julesjulesjules m 

Granita: Cranberry-orange

Ingredients:
1/2 C. sugar or Xylitol
1/2 C. fresh squeezed orange juice
3 C. cranberry-juice
1 Tbl. organic lemon juice
1 tsp. orange zest
2 tsp. finely grated fresh ginger

Heat all ingredients together, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Cook until ginger and orange zest release flavor.  Cool and drain through a sieve.  Pour into a shallow baking dish, mix ingredients and sent into freezer.  Freeze until solid then mash with tines of fork.  Keep frozen until serve.  Serves 6.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

In a sauce pan add:

4 medium russets or yellow fin potatoes, peeled & quartered
2 to 4 cloves organic garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp sea salt

Add enough water to just cover.  Boil and reduce heat to med.  Cook until tender.  Watch carefully, as you may need to add more water.  The reason to not add too much is to not wash away vitamins.  Also, I mash the water in, since I don't add milk.  If you have too much cooking water, pour it off in a cup, then add back if you need more to mash into a fluffy mix.  Add ghee and salt to flavor.

Green Eggs & Ham Scramble

You know the story..."Sam I am, I am."   Dr. Seuss was my favorite author when I was four.  Now I read him to my grandson.  Still fun...
 
So...as a young woman, I raised Araucana chickens.  It was the late 70s.  I lived in Yakima on one acre--a mini farm where I raised my own vegetables, kept a milk goat and chickens.  Araucanas are small colorful birds that lay green and other colored eggs. My daughter was three then and together we collected eggs in our shirt fronts--you hold up the hem of your T-shirt, making it into a bowl.  She had a favorite hen she called Blackie that she carried around under her arm.  Chickens can make great pets, if you feel inclined to be friendly with them.  But that makes it harder to retire them to the stew pot later.  Try stopping at one of the "fresh eggs" signs along the highway and buy farm fresh eggs.  The flavor of a real free range chicken egg is amazing.

Recipe:
Beat until frothy:

4 farm-fresh eggs
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbl. water

In a heated oiled pan add egg mixture.  Toss in chopped ham.  Trader Joe's has a non-nitrated ham that is very good.  You could use instead their Apple Smoked Bacon, crumbled.  Stir mixture until it is cooked through, but not dry.  Serve with Udi toast.  Enjoy, Nan, I am.


  

Green Beans with Dressing

In a steamer basket, cook 5 to 8 minutes, or until tender-crisp, 2 pounds green beans with strings removed and tips broken off.  Cool in water, drain and transfer to a beautiful serving bowl.

In a jar, shake together 2 Tbl. extra-virgin olive oil, 1 Tbl. white-wine vinegar, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, and 1/4 tsp ground pepper.  Pour over beans and toss to coat.  Serve with a main dish and garlic mashed potatoes.

Goulash

My mother was from Balston, Virginia, which had a regional influence on her cooking.  One of the dishes we loved the most was goulash.  The recipe has been passed down from daughter to daughter, and on to friends, too.  And now it is modified for gluten-free diets Please enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean organic ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups rice macaroni
• 1 16 oz. can organic stewed tomatoes
• 1 sm. can organic tomato sauce
• 1 Tbl. chili powder or to taste
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Sea salt and pepper

Brown the beef together with chopped onions and minced garlic.  Pour off grease and set aside.  

On the stove, boil brown rice pasta, leaving it a little firm, as it will cook more when you bake this dish.

Add pasta to beef.  Stir in tomatoes and seasonings.  

You could serve this from the stove top--or sprinkle with dairy-free cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Serve with green salad and red wine.



   

Ginger Chicken

This dish is easy and tasty.  Good for picnics served with potato salad.  Or serve with rice pilaf and a side of roasted broccoli.  Yummy!

Mix together:

1/2 C. plain coconut milk yogurt

1 to 2 Tsp. ginger

2 Tsp. minced garlic.

Dip into this mix, one at a time, 12 organic drumsticks (Trader Joe's).  Arrange on a baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until crispy brown.

  

Garlic Broccoli

This is an easy dish and good for you when you are ill.  Garlic is a natural antibiotic, so have at it during cold season.  Here's what www.garlic-central.com has to say: "Garlic's antibiotic properties have been more extensively studied than some of its other reputed health benefits. Louis Pasteur examined garlic's use as an antibacterial back in the nineteenth century and showed how it killed bacteria under laboratory conditions. Numerous modern studies confirm that garlic has definite antibiotic properties and is effective against many bacteria, fungi and viruses. According to Wright State University (1), garlic is approximately one per cent as potent an antibiotic as penicillin."


And it tastes good too.


In a large skillet, saute 1 head (trimmed) of broccoli flowerettes in olive oil.  As it begins to tenderize, add 1 Tbl. chopped garlic.  This would amount to about 3 to 4 cloves, depending on size.  Stir the broccoli and garlic together until tender.  Do not overcook the garlic, as burnt garlic becomes bitter.  Add salt and pepper or gluten-free soy sauce to taste.    Enjoy!

  

  

German Potato Salad

Our neighbors growing up, the Herlingers, were amazing cooks.  Mama made the best potato salad around, so when introduced to German Potato Salad, I think we turned up our noses.  But now, I find the salad quite delicious and a real treat.

Ingredients:

3 pounds cooked Yukon Gold potatoes

1/2 pound non-nitrated cooked bacon, diced (Trader Joe's Applewood-smoked is very tasty)

1 diced red onion

Dressing:

3/4 C cider vinegar

1 Tbl mustard seeds

1/4 C olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Green onions & parsley leaves for garnish.

Directions:

Either boil or bake potatoes until tender, but not baked-potato-soft.  When cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes into cubes,   Place the potatoes in a large bowl and cover to keep warm.

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove with a fork and drain on a paper towel. Add chopped onions to the bacon fat and cook until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Carefully add the vinegar and mustard seeds and cook for 2 more minutes. Add olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 

Pour hot dressing over the potatoes and toss gently to coat.Sprinkle the green onions and parsley. Serve warm.


  

Ginger Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C jasmine rice, washed and drained.
1 qt. Organic almond (or other nut) milk
1/4 C sugar
2 Tbl grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch sea salt
1/2 C whole coconut milk

Combine rice, almond milk, sugar, fresh and ground ginger, in a sauce pan and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and stir occasionally until liquid is absorbed into rice, about 20 minutes.  Add 1/2 C coconut milk.   Serve warm with bits of crystalized ginger sprinkled on top as garnish.

Griddle Cakes

This is my favorite recipe for pancakes.  Grandpa used to make giant pancakes on his outdoor electric grill at Diamond Lake. We'd all sit around the picnic table while grandpa flapped jacks.  A fond memory.

These griddlecakes are dairy free and gluten free.  I like to add organic blueberries I picked near Blaine and stored in the freezer.  Enjoy.

Mix together:

1 C. organic rice flour

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. aluminum free baking powder

Stir in:

2 Tbl. melted ghee

1 egg.

1/2 cup nut milk

1/2 cup frozen organic blueberries.

Batter should be thick as cake batter.  Adjust by adding more nut milk if needed.  Spoon into frying pan that has been heating on medium.  Let brown nicely on both sides and serve with real maple syrup.

Variation:  Replace 1/2 C rice flour with buckwheat flour

Apple Pancakes: Instead of blueberries, stir in 1/2 cup peeled and very thinly sliced apples.

Original recipe taken from Fanny Farmer Cookbook

Green Lentil Soup With Chard

Ooh, this soup is so delicious.  I used to love it served with crusty peasant bread, but now I use rice tortillas toasted or Udi bread, toasted and cubed.  Very hearty and nourishing, especially on a cold rainy day.

In a soup pan saute until tender in olive oil:
1/2 chopped medium onion
1 chopped garlic clove
1 chopped carrot

Add:
3/4 C washed green lentils.  (These are the tiny ones.)
1 bay leaf
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

Add 4 1/2 C water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for approximately 40 minutes.
Stir in 1 bunch chopped chard (from your garden) or kale or escarole.  Heat 5 minutes longer.

Serve soup drizzled with olive oil and toasted bread, cubed and sprinkled on top.

Fig & Hazelnut Tart

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Set aside in a bowl, 6 fresh figs, diced.

In food processor, pulse:
1 1/2 C fresh toasted hazelnuts (skinless)
4 Tbl organic brown rice flour
1/2 C confectioners' sugar

Once combined, add and process:
2 large egg
2 Tbl melted ghee
1 Tbl brandy
2 tsp grated lemon zest

Pour into oiled 8" tart pan.   Garnish with 2 sliced figs.
Bake until set and golden, about 40 min.
Cool and dust with confectioners sugar.

(Adapted from a Martha Stewart Recipe

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Recipe compliments of my friend Holly J. Hughes, Poet, Creative Writing Teacher: http://writingitreal.com/cgi-bin/get_bio.pl?name=Holly%20J.%20Hughes

Grind 1 and 1/2 cups of walnuts ( unsoaked)  into  small chunks in your quisinart
Add 6 dates, ( remove the pits and chop first)
1 Teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons water
1/3 cup powdered cacoa
Blend well  and when the mix gets clingy, form into a 5 inch  round and refrigerate for 2 hours.... then enjoy.

Perhaps enjoy with soy ice cream and garnish with a mint leaf.  Yummy!

  

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