A December Treat- Dairy Free Chocolate Covered Cashews and Cranberries

My husband used to travel a lot for work.   When that travel was to Chicago or through Chicago's O'Hare airport he brought back chocolate covered nuts for us!  He doesn't travel much for work any more and the kids were wishing the other day for chocolate covered cashews.   These were quick and easy to make and gone in the blink of an eye.  So I made more!  And thought I'd pass the recipe along to you.

Vanilla Peach Jam

Peach season is over in New England.  I bought the last peaches almost a week ago.  It is time to move on to apples.  And apple season is going to the be short since we've had frost already.  

But I still have a few peachy things to share.  The texture is funny for eating fresh out of the hand and they are not as juicy right now.  But they are still fantastic for jams and sauces!

Apple Crumble

Three cheers for Fall!  It's a great time of the year.  So beautiful with the leaves turning the cooler temperatures and fantastic sunsets.  If you come over to our house anytime of the year and you will likely be served apple crumble for desert.  It is a stand-by in our family.  However, right now is apple season!  So this is the absolute best time of the year for apple crumble.

Apple Crumble

Peach & Pepper Jam

I know, I know and I am so sorry.  It has been forever since I last wrote.

But now.... now I bring you something sweet with a touch of fire.  The amount of fire is up to you.  I will say that mine became hotter the longer it sat.  (Which was not all that long...)

Peach and Pepper Jam

I served it with scones the first night.  Over the next few days, the jam was slathered on a bagel with cream cheese (by a friend of mine), mixed into rice and beans, used to marinate chicken, and eaten by the spoonful straight from the jar. And would it ever be fantastic as a glaze on a lemon cake, less cooking and no pectin and it would be a fantastic salsa, or add a little oil, vinegar and salt, and voila! Salad dressing.  Yep, it was one of those recipes.  That recipe that starts as a vague thought, comes into being and transforms into more than you had imagined.  Time to make another batch!

Crushed peaches with  peppers

SunButter Drops

These are great if you need a quick little cookie.  They have three ingredients, go together easily, and are tasty!  So I thought they'd be a good little treat for Valentine's Day.  I know, I know... there's no chocolate.  You could melt some chocolate chips in a bain-marie and dip these.   Mmm, I may have to make another batch! 

Sunbutter drops

Mango and Potato Salad

Um, I can hear you.  Laughing at the fact the first recipe of the new year uses mangoes.   Yes, mangoes are one of my favorite fruits.  And I like to use them in unusual ways. So when I saw a dish that combined them with potatoes I thought... "Oh the yeah!  We're having that."  It is fantastic!  Sweet mangoes, tender potatoes, and caramelized onions with a spicy twist and tweak. 

Mango and potato salad

Sticky Chocolate Gingerbread

T'was Christmas Day and all through the house wafted the smell of  Chocolate...

Oh Yeah!

I love chocolate!  Chocolate dipped strawberries... raspberries in chocolate sauce... chocolate chip cookies...
And this time of year is an excellent excuse to indulge.

A chocolate gingerbread just seemed so... perfect.  This is the same recipe as for the Black Sticky Gingerbread, minus the pepper, with the addition of cocoa.  And it is delightful!  Yum!

Black Sticky Gingerbread

Oh the weather outside is... well, rather tame actually.  It isn't looking like a white Christmas here in New England.  And I'm a bit out of sync with the season.  I've done the bulk of my Christmas shopping this week.  Christmas cards too.  And the Christmas baking.

I've been collecting interesting gingerbread recipes and ideas.  And today I finally got around to making two of them.  Yay!

Sticky Chocolate and Black Sticky Gingerbread

Strawberry Vanilla Jam

Strawberry Vanilla Jam

 My favorite fruit in the whole world, contrary to popular belief, is not mango.  It is strawberries.  I have fond memories of eating wild strawberries at my grandparents house.  Eating until I was absolutely stuffed!

Absolutely my favorite. Now that being said my favorite fruit combination would have to be strawberry, mango and pineapple.  Mmmm that may have to be jam for another day.  You'll come back, won't you, for that one?

But we're not playing with mangoes today.  Focus... or you'll miss this one.  And you don't want to miss this one.  Strawberry and vanilla blend to make a taste sensation that will make your taste buds sing.  And your friends rave. 

Ginger Spice Cookies (Rice Free)

Let the Christmas baking begin!  Shortly after moving into our new house, one of our new neighbors invited me to the annual Christmas cookie swap and then comes the bake sale at school.  Fantastic, except, I haven't made Christmas cookies, per se, for years.  So I began going through old recipes and thinking.  As I was growing up, my family always made lots and lots of cookies at Christmas: ginger snaps, molasses crinkles, lemon bars, cherry pinwheels, raspberry turnovers, sugar cookies, etc.  What to make... and how much tweaking do I want to do?

Ginger Spice cookies

Apple Butter

This is one of those posts that was put on the back burner due to life.  Fall in New England is apple time.  And we do love apples in this house.  The kids eat apples sliced with their favorite butter (peanut or sunflower depending on the kid), we make pies, crumbles and more.   But the apple butter is a family favorite and I thought I'd share it with you.  Not only is it great on biscuits, or, simply, on a spoon... but stir 1/2 cup into spice cake or chocolate brownies and up the "Yum"!
  

Apples ready to be made into apples butter

Vanilla Pear Jam

My friend, Tree, brought this to my attention several months ago.  She had made it and was enjoying it with a biscuit and Irish cheddar.  *sigh*  How I wish she lived closer!!

She found the recipe on the Food in Jars website.  It is a great website to check out especially if you are into canning.  I found recipes for pear lavender jam, pear with brown sugar and cardamom, and strawberry vanilla as well as the vanilla pear made here.

Vanilla Pear Jam- flecks of vanilla bean.  Yum!

A move and finally some new recipes coming

My apologies to all of you.  I got caught up in life and have neglected to post.  My husband was transferred over the summer and my time was split between work, kids and trying to get things organized to move to western Massachusetts.  We moved on weekends starting in October and are now settling in and getting back into our routines.

That doesn't mean we haven't been eating though!  And I have been taking pictures of the new things we've eaten so there are several new recipes coming.  Some of them will be a bit out of season and I apologize for that.

On the home front look at the kitchen we found!

Our new kitchen!  Yay!

It is fantastic!  Very inspiring and great to cook in.  There is so much more to come.  I have recently been exploring roasting. And should have some great recipes for you shortly.

Thank you for your patience!  And I'll be posting recipes soon.  Later today in fact!

Michelle

Fall Spice Brown Rice Pudding

I'm trying to eat more brown rice these days.  It's good for you, so I've read.  I've been reading a book on macrobiotics.  There is a lot to macrobiotics.  It is more than just what you eat.  It is how you interact with the world around you.  The energies that flows through everything and how to balance that for better health.  Nutritionally macrobiotics seems to be based on brown rice, beans, soy and vegetables.  Soy doesn't work in our family.  But beans, brown rice and vegetables do.  So I'm moved to do something with brown rice.

Fall Spice Brown Rice Pudding with dried cranberries

I'm also trying to eat breakfast more often.  I'm not really a breakfast person... well unless there is a chocolate cake sitting on the counter.

Crispy Treats

Life in the summer is made to be simple.  And simple recipes are appreciated anytime of the year, right?  Especially ones that kids and adults enjoy. 

When you go gluten free deserts can be tough.  And when you are also dairy, egg and soy free it gets tougher.  We are also pineapple, citrus and cranberry free.  (Although I do keep them around once in awhile so those of us who can eat them have that choice, I don't usually make anything with them.)  Pies, cakes and crumbles all have to be tweaked, sometimes completely revamped.  It gets complicated.

But there is one simple desert.  A favorite treat using a cereal and a campfire staple.  The original recipe had dairy in it but here is a just-as-simple tweaked version.  A favorite treat tweaked to fit our dairy free life- simply.

Who doesn't love Crispy Rice Treats?

Mango, black bean quinoa salad

Sometimes you just need something fresh, different, a taste sensation that surprises.  Something different from your "normal" but not too far from your comfort zone.  Something, in fact, that could become comfort food... maybe?

Mango, black bean and quinoa salad with fresh mint.

You're tired of eating rice and decide to cook quinoa.  Fantastic!  Now what??  Well... You just happen to have a mango that needs to be eaten.  And you have mint taking over the garden 'cause everything else died from the mint strangling it.  Okay maybe you don't but I did.  (Imagine that, I had a mango.)

Beef Burgers

This is from my very first post but I decided to separate it out so that the burger recipe could be found a little more easily.

Spiced burger in an arepa with chips and Bunny BBQ

Spiced Beef Burgers
2 lbs ground beef
½  sweet white onion thinly sliced
½ tsp. Cumin
1 tsp Oregano
Black pepper
Salt
In in a bowl place the onions the meat and mix with ½ tsp cumin, 1 tsp oregano, a dash of salt and a heavy dash of pepper.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Cook in an electric skillet set at 350F or on a skillet on the stove set on medium high, or on the grill.  Cook the meat until the hamburgers are cooked through.


Enjoy!
~Michelle

Spiced Burger in a taco shell

Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad

Okay, yum.  I had seen this recipe around the web in several sites and finally decided to try it.  A potato salad that gets away from the heavy egg-y mayo.  I'm picky about potato salad. I don't like tons of dill.  I don't like pickle relish in it.  I don't like heavy mayo but I've never liked other potato salad dressed with anything else either.  (Eww to German potato salad.  For a girl who likes hash browns with her eggs and bacon, I don't like bacon in my potato salad.)    I haven't had a good potato salad since we went egg free.

Salt and vinegar potato salad

 

Jamaica!

Perfect place to sip a pina colada and enjoy the ocean breeze.

Our family vacation this year was an escape to a tropical paradise.  And it was sorely needed.  This summer is crazy... and stressful.  We are trying to sell our house (so not happening in this market apparently), repair our rental house and put it on the market (thank goodness for fantastic friends who pitched in and did more in a weekend than we could have gotten done in a month of weekends!) all the while Mark works full time and travels for his job.  And I work part time.  Plus the kids are out of school...

View from our room

We had planned on going on a two week cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean.  We were going to visit Italy, Greece, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. Visit the area of the world where six major religions were born, see the ancient centers of western art, architecture, philosophy and science.  Glassblowing, metal work, volcanoes and pyramids-- it was going to be a vacation to remember.  And it was going to be busy, busy, busy!

Life intervened... as it often does.  And what looked at first like a disappointment ended up being... well, perfect.  We crashed on a lovely white sand beach, swam in warm turquoise waters, and enjoyed the tropical weather of Jamaica in July.  Paradise!  It was so very relaxing and fun.  And just what we needed.

Jamaica.







Recipes inspired by Jamaica are in the pipeline.  So sip a pina colada and come back for mango banana bread, jerk chicken and more.

Ice Cream Trifecta!

Mmmm, it was a good time in ice cream world around here over the weekend.  Oh, baby!  Vanilla, cinnamon and a wicked dark chocolate.  Pull up a chair.  Let me tell ya about them...

Wicked dark chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla