Spontaneous Musings

It's hard to care about the snowstorm. I can't go anywhere anyhow. However, I do feel for the poor folks who had their vaccine appointments cancelled because of it. NYC always freaks out over snowstorms - mainly because they got blind-sighted once or twice, and decided NEVER again. New Yorkers seem to hold sternly to the view - "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!" Or "you caught me with my pants done that one time, but it ain't happening again, Dude."
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Also I went to the grocery store to pick up lime and lemon juice, along with a few other items (because I was there, and I hate going) - and it was crowded. More than I wanted it to be at any rate. I had a KN95 mask on - I've been wearing them for well over three months now - and I'd not seen any others until now. Now, it seems everyone is either wearing the KN95, or the double masks. Except for the maskless wonders - who we will not speak of. (Spits). But you can't enter a grocery store now without a mask - they'll boot your ass out. (Thank god.) Those days are long gone.

Felt like a human obstacle course. ( Read more... )



Two people in front of me - clearly going home after doing laundry. ( Read more... )

Oh that's not snow on the pavement - that's rock salt. Like I said, they go crazy.

Haven't done much else today. ( Read more... )

Did invent a new soup yesterday. Let's see if I can remember what I did.
Ah..

( Soup Glorious Soup! Or rather just blended Apple and Turnip and curry soup... )

I ignoring the political situation in the US at the moment, I suggest you do the same.

Good night and good luck. I'm off to fix myself something to eat. Not that I'm hungry - but it's almost 7:30, so I really should.

Two grain free, diary free, sugar free, peanut free, vegetable oil free muffin yummy muffin recipes for a quick and satisfying breakfast:

Egg frittata muffins wrapped with prosciutto. (Taken from Michelle tams mom mom paelo cookbook. about hour to prep.)

From Michelle tam's nom nom paelo. Ingredients:

8 eggs
1/2 pound of chopped thawed and wrung dry frozen spinach
Chopped shiitake mushrooms (she used cremni)
Chopped yellow onion (1/2)
Chopped garlic cloves (3)
1/2 pound or two packages of prosciutto, I ran out and used muffin tins.
2 tablespoons of coconut flour
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
Cherry tomatoes halved
Sea salt ( she used kosher salt)
3 tablespoons coconut milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cook onions, then add mushrooms and garlic in a frying pan or skillet until onions are translucent in a tablespoon of coconut oil.
Beat eggs.
Whisk in coconut milk and coconut flour
Fold in mushrooms,garlic,onions and spinach
Add chopped bacon if desired

Grease bottom of 12 muffin tin with coconut oil
Coat bottom and sides with prosciutto.
Place in oven for 20 minutes. Done when fork stuck in the top comes out clean.

Banana Walnut and Pecan Morning Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. 3 eggs
2. 1/4 cup coconut flour (coconut flour is highly fiberous flour - has more fiber than any other flour out there, so you don't need much of it. Also more nutritious than any other flour out there.)
3. 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
4. 2 ripe bananas
5. 1/4 teaspoon honey (recipe called for 3 tablespoons of honey, but that's too sweet for me and the bananas take care of it.)
6. cinnamon
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 2 tablespoons of canned coconut milk
9. 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
10. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
11. 1/2 cup chopped pecans and walnuts

Whisk the eggs, coconut oil and coconut milk
add in baking powder and coconut flour (whisk until combined)
add bananas, cinnamon, salt, vanilla (whisk until combined)
Add in the nuts

Divide into 6 muffin cups
Bake for 15 minutes

They do rise, extremely moist, and tasty.

So I baked chocolate chip cookies for a church bake sale and they actually turned out better than the cookies I made with regular flour, less grainy and chewy. One co-worker described a cookie as pure ambrosia - and I'd made his day. I'd given him a chocolate chocolate chip cookie. He's not gluten-free and never had a gluten-free cookie before.
Each co-worker tried a different cookie with trepidation - because, hello, gluten-free...eww...but, they were pleasantly surprised and loved them.

OMG Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

[From the Paeolo Cookbook for Dummies, with some personal adjustments]

1 1/2 cups of almond flour. (which is a lot and this ain't cheap. Use blanched almond flour, not Red Mill. It's harder to find, but better for baking. King Arthur has it. Found in health food stores and online.)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil - melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I always just pour a bit in..and never measure)
1/4 cup honey
1 egg (room temperature)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life - which are free of allergans, such as soy, dairy, nuts, glutens, corn starch, and sweeteners...used chocolate chunks)
1/2 cup coco powder (free trade organic, pure unsweetened coco -- I added this.)

1. In large bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, and salt
2. In a separate bowl, beat the coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
3. Mix in the chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate the cookie batter for 30 minutes
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
5. Roll the dough into 12 balls and arrange them on the baking sheet
6. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and flatten the cookies slightly with the back of a spoon. Put them back in the oven for about 5 more minutes, or until they look done. If you like soft and chewy cookies, take them out as soon as they start to turn golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and left the cookies remain on the pan for 1 minute before transferring them to wire racks to cool.

Real Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
By paleotable, February 16, 2014

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies
Allergens: Eggs, Nuts

Ingredients:

dark chocolate chips, dried fruit, or cacao nibs - 1 1/2 cups (I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet dark chocolate chips)

Dry
blanched almond flour - 3 1/4 cups (I also put a 1/4 cup of coconut flour)
sea salt - 1 tsp
baking soda - 1 tsp (1/2 teaspoon for me)

Wet
pastured eggs - 2 large, room temperature
pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp
raw honey or maple syrup - 1/2 cup (I used two teaspoons raw honey, 1/2 ripe banana mashed -- mainly because that was way too much honey for me. I may have added a little apple sauce.)
coconut oil - 1/2 cup, liquified

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring with a spoon or whisk to integrate the ingredients and break up any chunks.
Whisk wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until all ingredients are combined. Fold in chocolate chips, or the ingredient of your choice.
Refrigerate dough for 15-30 minutes or until firm.
Scoop onto parchment paper about 1 inch apart and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Watch carefully so that the bottoms don't burn.
Transfer to a cooling rack and cool until they reach room temperature, then place cookies in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

These were both hits with people who were not on gluten-free/paeolo diets, and the best cookies I've had in a while. Being on this sort of diet - requires a thick skin and will-power, you run into a lot of insane criticism from folks.

Craving Pumpkin Bread, I tried out this new pumpkin muffin/bread recipe with coconut flour. Have discovered fruit such as bananas makes a nice natural sweetener, although it does provide added moistness. So I might need to scale back on the eggs? Other than that it turned out well. I used butter in the recipe, but you can use coconut oil if butter is an issue. Coconut oil is a great butter substitute, not to mention healthier. Like butter it solidifies rapidly when cold and melts when heat is added.

http://wellnessmama.com/3655/coconut-flour-pumpkin-bread/

Pumpkin Bread and Muffins

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins

Simple pumpkin muffins made with coconut flour and pumpkin for a healthy and nutritious breakfast.

Author: Wellness Mama
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients

5 Eggs
1 cup of pumpkin puree (pumpkin only... check the ingredients)
¼ cup coconut oil or butter (softened)
½ cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
¼ cup honey or a few drops of stevia extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Put all ingredients in medium sized bowl

Using strong whisk or immersion blender (recommend!), mix until smooth and well incorporated. If batter is too thick, add a little coconut milk or water to thin, but don’t let it get runny at all.

Put into greased muffin tins or an 8x8 baking dish (a regular loaf pan doesn't work well)- For muffins, I use a ¼ cup measure to make pretty even sized. Batter will be somewhat thick. Bake for 13-18 minutes (muffins) or 20-25 minutes (bread) until lightly browned and set in middle.

Optional topping: finely grind almonds or pecans and mix with butter or coconut oil to make a crumble topping.

I've found these muffins to be moister than normal muffins, and less dry or crumbly. But they also don't rise up quite as high - there's less of sponginess to them. If you have issues with eggs - it could be a problem.

1. Two episodes in on the first season of Orange is the New Black - and I'm already loving it. Possibly the best female centric dramedy that I've seen in ages. Compelling with lots of fascinating characters and situations. Only problem - is you have to wait a while for each season to be available on DVD, which frankly makes no sense considering Netflix created it. Seriously, Netflix? Seriously?

My favorite characters are a draw right now between "RED", the Russian cook brilliantly portrayed by Kate Mulgrew, and Suzie, the wacky lesbian.

2. Tried two new recipes from The Practical Paleo.

* The first one, apple streusal egg muffins is actually a lot better than the almond coconut bread, and worked. Of course I changed the recipe a bit. Or tweaked it. I've discovered this is necessary with recipe books. They just don't work as written for some reason. Also they are always set up for a family of five for some reason or other.
( apple or banana streusal egg muffins )
* The other one - was tea gelatin - apparently gelatin is great for cell growth in the gut? So all you do here is put tea bags in water, follow the directions on the gelatin package (use Knox plain gelatin) and put in the fridge.

We'll see if this works.

The Quiche turned out perfectly, flaky crust via Gillian's Gluten free, Dairy Free, Nut Free...and a great quiche. I halved the recipe.

Here it is:
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Was a cooking mood this weekend, so made a great turnip and leek soup with apples/bacon/onion garnish. Picked up peeled turnips, leeks, garlic, onion, and apples from the farmers market for the soup. Only draw-back, it heated up my apartment something fierce, so now I'm hot.

Found the recipe here and video demo here:

http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/cooking_at_home/148704/recipe--turnip-and-potato-soup
( recipe below the cut )
Also made gluten free sugar cookies with orange food coloring and orange icing so they sort of look like poorly shaped pumpkins. Didn't turn out quite the way I wanted. But oh well.

First off the easy dinner recipe...Poached Salmon with summer and zuccini squash, and multi-grain sticky rice. Takes about 20-30 minutes if that.

( 30 minute poached salmon with rice and squash )

A Gifted Man

Airs at 8pm ET on Friday nights. Opposite La Femme Nikita and something else.

Well, this was a surprise. Did not expect to like this show at all. The critics were ambivalent, and it's not a smart, witty, raw or out-there tv series - which may well be the reason. It's quiet, with quietly good performances, cinematography, direction and production style. And soothing. Surprisingly good in places. What I like to call realism. And quite possibly the best pilot I've seen to date. (Which granted isn't saying all that much...considering, I've not been wild about any of the pilots I've seen.)

( Review of a Gifted Man )