Chez Moo has become The House Of Apples.

Last weekend we had our first annual wassailing party. On a lark I went and bought a ton of organic apples, which were on sale because although they tasted pretty good, they had a kind of mealy consistency that didn't lend itself well to raw snacking. Then I got a bunch of bulk spices, including star anise, which is just gorgeous. I had no idea how many apples I needed, so I got too many. Just a bit. (Understatement. )

I went crazy with the juicer and made two big jars of apple cider, then I heated it up, wrapped a bunch of spices in cheesecloth, and tied it will twine. It simmered for roughly 30 minutes and was just amazing. It was a bit spicy, but even the kids were enjoying it.

This is my recipe for the mulling spices. A few things are estimated. I didn't use ginger because of allergies, but if you can tolerate it, I'd add about 1 tablespoon or so of dried ginger or a about an inch or so of a fresh root.

Cider Mulling Blend

For a large pot (spaghetti-sized) of cider:

4 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
1 tablespoon of whole allspice seeds
3 or 4 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods.
The skins of one orange and one lemon, cut up into manageable pieces

Put into a big tea ball, or wrap everything into two or three layers of cheesecloth and tie securely.

Heat up the pot and add the spice blend. Simmer 15-30 minutes or to taste.

It's possible to make this for storage or gifting if you cut off and dry the rinds three days in advance.

It's been four days. The cider has been packed away into the freezer and small brown spots started to show up on the gazillion apples that were still left. Then came the Winter Solstice and suddenly it was Hanukkah, too, so Little Moo and I decided to get down to work and get on the baking.

I came up with an apple cake, and we made another cobbler.

The cake was covered with raisins, which wasn't the best idea, but Little Moo wanted to use them, so we did. I wasn't sure which side would be prettier, so it's kind of a right-side-up-upside-down cake that can't seem to make heads or tails of itself.

I have to say that it's delicious, light, a bit eggy and I believe that it will be nicely dense once it's chilled. We enjoyed it topped with kefired coconut cream. Also, it's a blender cake, but only because, as usual, I cream dates into the eggs for sweetness. You could totally substitute 3/4 cup or so of another sweetener (some kind of sugar - honey would be too much liquid) and make it in a food processor or even by hand. Also, this is not a very sweet cake. If you decide to indulge your sweet tooth, add about two or three more dates.

Solstice Apple Cake

Ingredients

12 eggs
1/2 cup melted ghee
1/2 cup coconut cream (or milk)
6 dates
4 drops liquid stevia
2 pinches salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sifted coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped apples
1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon
(Optional: 1/2-1 cup raisins)

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a blender, blend the eggs, coconut cream, dates, stevia, salt and vanilla until smooth. While spinning, add the ghee. Add the baking powder to the coconut flour. Add the dry mixture into the moist and blend well.

Pour into a large bowl and mix down any lumps that are left. Toss the apples (and raisins) with the cinnamon and swirl them into the batter.

Grease the sides of a 9" round pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan. Decorate the top if you like with apples. We also used about 1/8 teaspoon of sugar to sprinkle on the top.

Bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Here are pics of the cake in progress:

Therapeutic Vegetable Curry Soup

I don't travel well, even in the best of situations. I always have to take over our host's kitchen. I've noticed in various parts of Bosnyphlwash that the water is especially toxic to me. Then it's the additional expense and effort of getting, drinking and cooking with all bottled water...which bugs me, because I just  hate how harmful all that plastic is to people's bodies and to the environment.

Speaking of which...oh, of course. Now I know what I'll do next time!
http://www.multipureco.com/h2oonthego.htm

This time, when we went away to visit family in upstate New York, it was deepest, snowiest winter, and hardly a vegetable in sight, much less an organic one. The ones we did get were shipped from so far away that they were limp and barely fresh. A grocer proudly led me to what he called "organic chicken," labeled clearly "all-natural." He was surprised when I told him that the label actually had to say "organic" on it for the meat to actually be guaranteed to conform to those standards. I couldn't get giblets. All of the available beef was from feedlot cows.

I guiltily drank bottled water for the first day or two, then stopped when I thought about all those bottles and that we didn't have recycling in our hotel. The rashes started immediately after. Later I was surrounded by cat hair and particularly heavy dust. I found myself relying on nuts (!) for breakfast and travel food. I had wind burn. By the time I came home, it was as if I wore a mask of cracking, bleeding skin on my face with hives, bumps, rashes and you name it, from the top of my head down to my belly. One of my eyes had started to swell shut on the plane home. Benadryl and cortisone made absolutely no dent in my discomfort.

Just like the good old days. You'd think I had never been on the GAPS Diet. The only thing that saved it from getting any worse was the addition of curcumin supplements that I found at a health food store there. I was craving turmeric.

Luckily I knew just what to do. I had a container of frozen chicken broth in the freezer, waiting for us when we got back. Our family downed that in about a day. We stopped out for supplies on our way back from the airport and I immediately put on another batch of broth, cooked a batch of split chicken legs, and started chopping vegetables.

I had a feeling that the best edible salve for my skin would be something with a strong curry - something with warming spices and a big shot of turmeric. I've read that eaten turmeric is too easily digested by the stomach to work therapeutically, but in my experience it actually works best in collaboration with cumin, mustard seed and coriander powder, and ingested as part of a series of fairly heavy meals eaten over a week or so with a decent amount of fat. I have taken the pills - which are pretty large doses of curcumin - without the other spices and noticed less difference.

It was to be a supper meal, so I left off the big hunks of meat and decided to add the chicken meat after the fact the next day.

This is possibly the best curried soup I've ever come up with. I think that the drippings made it so. Because we'd been so long without fresh veggies I splurged and got a few things that weren't in season. Also, the white and crimini mushrooms smelled funny so I got shiitake mushrooms and just settled on having fewer - they were delicious.

Finally, there is no ginger in this recipe because I'm allergic to it, but if you can tolerate it, and it does nice things for you, grate some into the spice mixture at the beginning.

Best Therapeutic Vegetable Curry Soup

Ingredients

1 ginormous onion or 2 small ones, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons ghee
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 large clove garlic
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
drippings from the last roast (I used chicken, but other meats would be fine, too - if you don't have any drippings try adding extra fat and a teaspoon full of Bernard Jensen's gelatin for similar effect.)
about 6 sliced mushrooms (I used shiitake, but any kind will do)

1 carrot, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 halved and sliced zucchini

1 bunch of chard, chopped, or another type of hard winter greens

1/2 a package of frozen organic peas

approximately 1 quart chicken broth

Heat up the broth. Melt the ghee in a separate soup pot on medium heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Right after you hear the first pop turn the heat down and add the onions. Saute 15 minutes or more until soft and aromatic. Add garlic, turmeric, coriander, sea salt and drippings. Cook until aromatic. Add the mushrooms and mix them in so that they absorb the fat a bit. Then add the carrots, celery and zucchini. When they're well blended, add the peas and cover for a few minutes to fully defrost them. Finally, add the greens and allow to saute for moment or two. Cover with the broth. I wanted a thicker broth, so I eyeballed it, but it would be good as a thinner soup, too.

Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. It will be a nice greenish gold with lovely orange bits and peas all floating around. Serve in bowls or mugs. For a nice kick, top with chopped fermented garlic cloves.

If you partake of grains at all, it's a good topping for a nice bowl of rice or quinoa.

After eating this stuff about twice or three times daily for the past day, my skin is nearly normal again! Yay!

Sconage!

I can't eat these, since they're made from garbanzo flour and have tapioca in them, as well, not to mention maple syrup, but they're fine for Little Moo, who managed to fill up on them for one day, then wouldn't touch them again.

Recipe to come...

Okay - here it is...

I apologize - the recipe isn't exact. I forgot to take notes while I made it, but the proportions are actually pretty clear and precision is not entirely necessary. The raisins are the sweetener, so start small and add to make it sweet enough. I found that little was necessary because the carrots were quite sweet as was the banana.

The best thing about this one is that it's a vegetable that masquerades as a dessert, and there's enough nut in it to make it an acceptable lunch for us if Little Moo has an adequately protein-laden breakfast, which she does these days. (Recently she's partial to hamburgers in the morning made into a burger and veg sandwich slathered with mustard or kraut. I kid you not. Then lunch is smaller and dinner is very light - not a bad way to live, actually.)

Carrot Nut Banana Pie

5 or 6 large fresh carrots

about 1/4 cup freshly roasted nuts (I used pecans and walnuts, but any kind would be tasty)

1 can coconut milk

about 1/4 cup shredded coconut meat

1 ripe banana

a few tablespoons full of raisins

about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons Bernard Jensen gelatin

boiling water

Peel and shred the carrots. Steam them until soft.

In blender put the raisins, banana, nuts, coconut, carrots, cinnamon, coconut milk. Blend well. Dissolve the gelatin in boiling water. Pour this mixture into the blender and mix well. Pour it into a pie pan, cover with a layer of waxed paper and then a sheet of foil. Chill overnight.

Next one: a savory quiche that is non-dairy and has no flour or eggs! We'll see how it turns out. It's baking now...

Did I really forget? Autumn Squash Crustless Pie

I've been making this for a long time now and Little Moo will gobble down firsts and seconds and eat it for breakfast the next day. As usual, I hid some solid nutrition inside, so it actually does make a great breakfast!

1 cup baked autumn squash (Kabocha, carnivale, butternut and delicata are the tastiest. Oddly enough, pumpkin is dry, bland and has very little character.)

1 can organic full-fat coconut milk
1/2 ripe banana
3 dates, pitted
a handful or so of raisins (to taste - this is the sweetener, and it all depends on the flavor of the squash)
1/2 cup crispy nuts (we prefer pecans or cashews, but if you'd prefer a bigger protein kick, try walnuts or even pumpkin seeds for thematic closure. :) )
between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon to taste
1 tablespoon non-alcohol vanilla
3 tablespoons Bernard Jensen Gelatin
about 1/4 c boiling water

In a strong blender, blend the squash, coconut milk, banana, vanilla, nuts or seeds, cinnamon and dates. Taste it and add raisins until it's sweet enough.

Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water, then add to the mixture. Blend thoroughly.

Pour into a glass or ceramic pie pan. Cover with a sheet of wax paper, then seal with a sheet of aluminum foil. Chill well for 24 hours or overnight.

Feeds 3 people for dessert one night and breakfast the next day with a bit leftover. I'd say that about 6-8 people could finish it off in one sitting.

Elderberry Coconut Kefir - It's a tasty drink...no, it's a flu preventative...no, it's a sports drink!

I had this idea to make a kefir drink that was also a flu remedy recently. The culturing process makes the elderberry syrup even more potent and all the good stuff in the coconut water even better. Get the syrup version that is as unadulterated as possible, sans alcohol. The unsweetened tincture generally contains citric acid and glycerin, but it's still pretty clean.

3 cups coconut water, warmed to room temperature
4-6 tsp elderberry tincture
1 package of kefir starter

Mix the coconut water with the tincture. Thoroughly mix the starter and pour into a jar. Screw on the top lightly and leave at room temperature overnight to 24 hours. Chill and drink.

My daughter couldn't get enough of it...but do remember that 1 or 2 teaspoons of elderberry tincture is what you're supposed to take 2 to 4 times per day, depending on how proactive you're being. So that's maybe a cup at most!

Persimmon Paradise Ice Cream (non-dairy!)

This is a coconut milk-based ice cream, made without eggs or dairy that's sort of a dress rehearsal for Thanksgiving. I couldn't believe just how good it was right out of the ice cream maker - we'll see what it's like set and frozen tomorrow. Little Moo licked the spoon for about 10 minutes when we scooped it out to put away. It's got lots of nice fall flavors and is a pretty orangey-tan color. It would be nice topped with seasonal fruits - more persimmons, 2 colors of sliced grapes, a slice of pear or apple, maybe. Nuts would be tasty and pretty, too.

The problem I was trying to solve was that grainy watery texture that coconut milk ice cream often has. The key to the texture and richness was adding raw virgin coconut oil to the mixture as well as coconut milk kefir and regular coconut milk. The oil, which is solid below about 76 degrees F, keeps it creamy. It would also be good with just kefir, I'd think. Tangier. For a milder version, maybe just the milk.

Persimmon Paradise Ice Cream

2 fuyu persimmons, quartered and peeled (hachiya would also be fine)

1 can coconut milk, preferably organic, definitely full-fat

2 heaping ts raw, unrefined coconut oil

2 ts non-alcohol vanilla extract

2 pinches ground nutmeg

about 1/8 ts ground cinnamon

about 1/3 c dark raisins

1 cup coconut milk kefir

optional: 3 drops liquid stevia if it's not sweet enough

Put everything in a blender. Blend well. Pour into ice cream maker. Process according to the instructions for your particular churn. Scoop...enjoy! Store leftovers in the freezer for later (if there's anything left!).

Mango Chutney

After months and months of lactofermented veggies (for me it's been a few years, actually) it was time for something different. I tried a mango version of the Nourishing Traditions Papaya Chutney. It's delicious. I left off the rapadura and it's STILL amazing.

Basically, get a small onion, bunches of mint and cilantro, respectively, 3 big mangoes, a red pepper, and mix them up in a bowl. Cube the fruit, julienne the pepper, and chop the leaves of the herbs coarsely. Chop the onion, too.

In a separate bowl, mix together a few ts salt, 1/4 c whey, 1/2 c lime juice and 1/2 c water.

Put the fruit mixture into a quart mason jar, punch it down with something like a meat hammer or a ladle. Add the liquid, adding enough water to fill to 1" above the fruit. If anything floats to the top, try to push it down.

Seal it up and keep it in a warm place for 2 days, then refrigerate.

The trick here is that almost anything blended with whey and left to ferment tastes great. So, for a small jar of mustard, relish or whatever gets a few tablespoons and a quart gets 1/4 cup.

Another birthday night variation...green burgers!

By the way, folks, that green burger recipe does beautifully with ground grass-fed bison meat. We used kale chopped in my great-grandmother's ancient five-and-dime chopper and bowl set. (We think it's from the 1920s or so.) with coarsely chopped onion, sauteed. I served it over rice pasta with a gorgeous salad made by my husband, John, the salad expert with homegrown tomatoes and sweet organic cucumbers from the Oakmont Farmers' Market in suburban Phila.

Amazingly Tasty Coconut Milk Custard

It was amazing on the cake from the last entry, but also good just as a pudding with fruit.

• 2 c whole coconut milk (not "light")
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 c sugar (we used turbinado here, but I think raw sugar like rapadura would be even better. White is fine if that's all you have)

Beat the yolks. Blend the yolks and sugar together in a small bowl. Scald the coconut milk. (Coconut milk scalds differently than dairy milk. It doesn't bubble at the edges the same way, but it does seem to bubble up in the center somewhat before it takes off on a rolling boil. I found that medium heat did well here.)

Turn down heat to low and SLOWLY add the yolks and sugar mixture, a bit at a time. Blend quickly and well to prevent yolks from setting before mixed in. When it's all mixed in, turn up the heat a bit and stir in a figure-eight until the custard starts to set. It might take a while. (Thanks to my mother for stirring endlessly while I moved on to cook another part of the dinner!)

Pour the custard into a nice dish and allow to cool to room temp. Then put into fridge to cool all the way.

SUPER yummy with fruit. This batch served six or so over cake with fruit.

Ricebread makes a comeback as birthday cake!

We had a fabulous birthday party - the first one of two - for Rain's 2nd birthday tonight. My mother and I took over the kitchen and sent my dad packing. We had some decent girl-time cooking and baking together, which we don't usually get. Rain's deal was "Rain no pants! No underwear!" So, she was the pantsless baby. Friends of the family I haven't seen in years came. They enjoy exciting new foods, so they were really into the grass-fed buffalo and veggies on rice pasta. (Whew.)

I baked a totally miraculous cake that was gluten-, corn-, soy- and dairy-free. Unlike us, my parents have a great oven, and it actually ROSE. We made a custard from coconut milk, egg yolks and sugar and had tons of fruit with it.

Note: My dad ran out to the store to get vanilla extract. In suburban Phila, there's next to no options for whole foods, so there was one kind of vanilla - McCormacks. I noticed after I let a few bits into the cake that it has CORN SYRUP in it. What the heck, right? Okay. So, not entirely happy with that, but I'm not the elephant man yet, and my child seems to be okay. Anyway, if you don't do corn, don't get McCormacks. I'm sure the recipe would be fine with extra banana and no vanilla, if necessary. Even better. Use a vanilla bean!

This cake was basically the Ricebread recipe from the Allergy Survival Guide with a few twists.

• 1 1/2 c rice flour1/2 c flour mix (1 part rice flour to 1 part tapioca starch)1 tb baking powder
• 1/2 c coconut oil, melted
• almost 1/2 c maple syrup
• about 1/4 of a soft banana, mashed
• 1 whole egg + one yolk, beaten
• about 1/2 ts vanilla extract. (Stopped short when I realized it had corn syrup in it! I'm sure it would be tasty with 1 whole ts, or even a vanilla bean...)
  
• 9" round pan. Ours was Pyrex glass and worked fantastically.
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend dry ingredients well. Blend wet ingredients: Put mashed banana into a cup measure and fill up the rest of the way with maple syrup to 1/2 cup line. Blend with oil, egg, vanilla. Add wet ingredients minus the water to dry. Add water at the end. Mix well

Pour into a greased pan (we used coconut oil) and bake for about 45 minutes.

See next entry for tasty coconut milk custard recipe...