Squash Brownies

No really, they're fabulous.

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup palm oil shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup, etc)
1/2 cup pureed squash/pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 tsp sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Melt shortening
3. Stir in cocoa until well mixed
4. Stir in sugar/sweetener
5. Stir in squash & vanilla
6. In a separate dish, mix rice flour, tapioca starch and sea salt
7. Add flour mixture to cocoa mixture, stirring just until all dry ingredients are wet
8. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 glass pan
9. Bake for 30 or so minutes at 350*F (you will know it's done when a knife or toothpick poked into the center comes out clean)
10. Enjoy

Tortillas & turkey taco filling

In the past, I've made buckwheat tortillas with moderate success. I've both fried them and baked them. I think the baking turned out the best, I think, but I was totally winging it. I had just mixed buckwheat flour, oil and water together and went for it. That's the basic recipe, I do believe for genuine tortillas. I did find this link for authentic corn tortillas and I'm going to follow it with buckwheat flour (or possibly a half and half of buckwheat and sorghum).

I will try them this afternoon and then post an update this evening or tomorrow. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: I used Bob's Red Mill buckwheat flour - it's dark and very finely ground. It is not my favorite buckwheat flour, but it was what we have available to us, since we are trying to avoid bulk-bins (i.e. gluten contamination). I've heard there is a pre-packaged "light" buckwheat flour, so I will have to look into it. My point is, when I started making the dough based on the corn recipe, the dough was way too sticky. I added probably another cup of flour and it was still too sticky. So, I added some tapioca flour. That helped at first, but then it made it sticky in a different way. Good for holding the tortillas together; bad for allowing them to transfer from wax paper to frying pan easily. Adding even more buckwheat flour as I was flatening then (with my hands and fingers, not a roller) seemed to help. I fried them on high heat in palm oil shortening. The dash of baking soda I added to the flour helped them bubble and rise.

They were chewy and fabulous. But also very time consuming. I think it took me an hour to make a dozen. [Dave had 4; I had 4; Aevryn had 1; Lily had 3. That alone tells you how good they were.] I knew it was going to take awhile, so I had pre-chopped my veggies so I was able to just let the filling simmer while I did the tortillas. I'm not sure how these would be if I made them ahead of time, put them in the fridge or freezer and then warmed them for dinner. I wonder if I'd lose a lot of the flexibility these had.

For the sake of completeness, here is what we had for dinner last night, to go with our tortillas.

Turkey Taco Filling:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 green pepper
• 4-5 tomatoes
• 1 lg zucchini
• bone broth
• fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• sea salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, allspice, clove
  

1. Brown turkey.
2. Add 1 cup bone broth & spices. Let simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add finely chopped veggies. Simmer some more until veggies are soft.
   

Yield: enough filling for 12 small tortillas, plus lettuce cups. roughly 6-8 servings.

Taco Toppings:

• avocado
• green salsa
• lettuce
• black olives

Tart Cherry Tart

This is probably one of the best desserts I've made since we cut out "everything". It was unbelievably simple and quick. I put it in the oven while we were eating and it was ready by the time we were done. That fact that the Cherries were hand-picked by the children (and myself & Dave's mom) in a local orchard makes it that much better.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• approx 1/4 cup palm oil shortening
  
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
  
• 2 cups (pitted) tart cherries
• approx 2 TBSP coconut oil
• approx 2 TBSP maple syrup
• approx 3 TBSP GF breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS:

CRUST

1. Mix flour, soda & salt.
   
2. Mash shortening into flour mixture with a fork, until crumbly.
   
3. Press "dough" into the bottom of a pie pan.
4. Prick with a fork all over.
   
5. Pre-bake at 400*F for 10 minutes or so (will start to look "golden").
   

TOPPING

1. Mix cherries, coconut oil (melted if it's not already melted due to ambient temperature), maple syrup and 2 Tbsp of bread crumbs.
   
2. Pour cherry mixture over pre-baked crust. Spread evenly.
   
3. Sprinkle remaining breadcrumbs (~1 Tbsp) over top.
   
4. Bake at 350*F for 15-20 minutes.
   

The tart will be gooey. It may not come out of the pie tin in nice, whole pieces. However, it is fantastically good, even if it starts to resemble more of a crumble or cobbler than a pie or tart.

Yield: realistically, this yields a modest after-dinner dessert for four adults. (Or two adults and two small children with enough for two adults to snack on after said children are in bed. Ahem.) You could easily double (or triple, etc) the recipe, use two pie pans (or glass casserole dishes, whatever you have) and have enough for lots of people. Or lots for a few people.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract in the crust.
• Use coconut oil in place of palm oil shortening in crust.
• Try adding toasted coconut to the crust and/or to the top of the tart.
  
• Try allergy-friendly chocolate chips mixed into the filling and/or on top.
• Try different flours: quinoa flour is especially finely ground and makes great cookies and pie crusts. It does have a particularly unique (read: strong) flavor.
  

Fried Zucchini Slices

So, it's late summer. That means: zucchini. And lots of it. Creative, allergy-friendly, non-boring zucchini dishes are always welcome in our repertoire. Since I found an allergy-friendly bread crumb at the co-op the other day, I thought I'd try my hand at fried zucchini & pattypan squash slices. They were a hit!

INGREDIENTS:

• a few medium-sized zucchini
• several pattypan squash
• 1/2 cup (ish) palm oil shortening
  
• a few pinches of sea salt
• a few handfuls of bread crumbs
• a few handfuls of nutritional yeast

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl mix sliced zucchini & squash with bread crumbs, salt & nutritional yeast.
   
2. Heat up a skillet of shortening (you can pretty much use any frying oil you want - we made it last night with palm oil shortening, but this afternoon we used rendered chicken fat).
   
3. Pour bowl of zucchini into the skillet. Let it fry for a few minutes and then stir while frying a few more. The bread crumbs and yeast will brown and the zucchini & squash will get tender. Don't over cook, or your veggies will get soggy & mushy.

Yield: easily serves four as a side dish.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add spices to the bread crumbs: basil, oregano, rosemary
  
• Add some aromatics: onions, garlic, ginger
• Serve with some chicken and/or baked potato wedges for a full meal