Spring Gazpacho

Gazpacho

I made this at our 2014 Easter dinner, combined from several recipes on the web.

INGREDIENTS

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large or 2 small zucchini, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBS freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
Salt and fresh pepper
Tabasco (6 dashes or to taste)
4 cups tomato juice

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients. Blend or food process slightly, to desired consistency--leave chunks and do not process it into mush. Cover tightly and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight so that the flavors can blend.

Garnish Gazpacho with diced vegetables or seeds

"Healthy" Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

Pumpkin Muffin Recipe ("Healthy")

Healthy is in quotes, because are any of these really healthy (maybe just "healthier")? 

I just love pumpkin and we have made these in the Spring too - not just Fall! The recipes with 1 cup of oil are too much for me as is 1 entire cup of sugar, so I cobbled this together from various recipes I saw online and they turned out really good (at 10,000 feet, no less!). Less sugar and a lot less oil.

Ingredients

2 apples, cored and sliced very thin and cooked in a pan, adding water to prevent burning, until they are soft, but not applesauce - you want full pieces.

1 15-oz can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBS milk
2 TBS vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown or white sugar
1 3/4-2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 scant tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup pecans or other nut (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom of muffin cups. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Then, combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and do not over mix. Add in chocolate chips and pecans and mix in carefully (to avoid over mixing the batter).

Spoon into muffin cups and bake until muffins are slightly puffed and golden brown and a knife or toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Makes 12 - 18 muffins.

Recipe: French "Secret" Chocolate Mousse Recipe

For why this recipe is "secret" look here and here. I have never asked anyone in France for the recipe, so don't know if all my friends and relatives use this same recipe as well!

 (Sorry - you have to be able to read both French and English for this version of the recipe. Check out the recipes linked to above if you want an English-only version.)

Thanks to Caitilin W. for the photo!

If you can't get a hold of the Nestle Dessert Noir chocolate, apparently, it contains about 52% cacao.

And thanks to my friend Sara S. for this extra info on how to fold in the egg whites successfully.

In the recipe above, when you get to adding the egg whites to the yolk/chocolate and add then carefully fold in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to the chocolate mixture. You then gradually add the remaining egg whites, carefully folding in using a figure eight movement to mix in all the chocolate without losing the air incorporated in the whites (since that's the whole greatness of mousse).  Allow the mousse to set in the fridge (covered) for at least 3 hours before serving (Sara's tip is to allow it to set overnight if possible) and she says the secret is in the fold.  If you have a large spooned spatula type utensil, those work great (like the Pampered Chef kind).

Here is a nice video on folding (my phobia, but it does not look that hard):

Recipe: German Grandma's Stollen

Recipe: German Grandma's Stollen

When I was growing up in Alaska, one of our neighbors used to bring us her homemade stollen every Christmas. I have searched for years for a recipe that was not impossible to make and is true to the one my neighbor made. Lucky for me, a translator friend provided me this authentic recipe from her mother in Germany. It worked very well for me and is forgiving (in the Colorado altitude). See my notes below as well. And best of all, it reminds me of the one of my childhood. Success!

Since this recipe is straight from Europe, it uses metric measurements. I have a scale that uses both metric and US measurements, so conversion was easy. You can also look online for conversions, but weighing the ingredients will probably be the most accurate.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C (or 475 F)
Reduce to 180-200 degrees C (or 375) when baking.
Bake for 30-40 minutes (middle rack) until done (or under bake so the middle is still yeasty and moist, as my friend suggests).

Ingredients for bread dough: 

• 500g flour
• 60g fresh or cake yeast (to use dry yeast instead, note that this equals about 1.3 oz of dry yeast - this is what I used and it turned out fine, but the original recipe called for cake yeast)
• 100g sugar
• 1 pack of vanilla sugar  (you can get these in international stores -- I have some from the last time I was in France. I see you can also get it on Amazon.)
• 1/8 liter of milk (lukewarm)
• 2 eggs
• 150-200g butter (no substitute)
• 1 pinch of salt

Ingredients to add into prepared dough:

• 50g candied lemon peel 
• 50g candied orange peel 
• (or candied cherries, other candied fruits that you like) 
• 200g slivered almonds (yes, that many)
• 200g raisins (yes, that many) - I used dried currants because I don't like raisins that much

Directions: 
Prepare a yeast dough using the ingredients above, using your favorite method. I let my bread maker do the work through the first rise. For the first rise, let the dough rise sufficiently in a warm place (this can take 1-2 hours).

After the first rise, punch down and work in the fruits you have selected and the almonds, again, using your preferred method. There were too many fruits/nuts for my bread maker to handle, so I have done it by manually kneading in the fruits/nuts and also by using the kneading attachment on my stand mixer. There are a lot of ingredients to mix in at this stage, so make sure they get worked in well.

Once you have worked in the fruits/nuts, shape the dough into a long loaf (stollen style) on a buttered cookie sheet. Let the dough rise again, in a warm place. I do not seem to get a lot of rise the second time around, but it always ends up fine in the end, once baked.

After baking, brush the loaf with melted butter and then coat it with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Cranberry Orange Cookies

It was hard to find a recipe for this type of cookie online. I merged together several recipes and came up with this. They were delicious!


Cookies: 

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp grated orange zest
2 TBS orange juice
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 scant tsp cardamom (optional and expensive but worth it)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together butter and sugars till smooth.
Beat in egg and blend well.
Mix in the orange zest and the orange juice.
Combine flour, cardamom (if using), baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Stir flour mixture into sugar/butter mixture.
Mix in cranberries and walnuts.
Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Yield: Around 30 cookies

Easy Orange Glaze:

1 cup xxx sugar
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS orange juice

Mix together in a small bowl until well blended. Spread onto cooled cookies.

Recipe: Pain d'Epice

Recipe: Pain d'épices

From Reynald's aunt's friend in France (got that?) 

2 eggs

250g of whole wheat flour (or half white and half wheat)

100g   miel (or 4 TBS)

100g organic (not white) sugar (sucre roux)

20 cl milk

1 tsp baking powder (sachet de levure)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon whole anise seeds

¼ teaspoon ground coriander seed (optional)1 cuillère a soupe d'épices

Je mélange les oeufs avec le sucre, j y ajoute la farine, les épices, la levure, je dilue le miel dans le lait tiède et je le verse sur ma préparation bien mélanger, la pâte est coulante, je faire curie dans un moule a cake 50 min a 150  ou th 5-6.

Recipe: Noémie Chocolate Cake

Noémie made this cake for us several times when she was visiting us several years ago. Yum, yum! 

Ingredients:

Good quality dark chocolate (not US Baker's Chocolate) 200 g Butter (salted) 200 g Flour 100 g Sugar 300 g 6 eggs

Directions:  Mix chocolate and sugar in a pan and melt (using a "bain-marie" or using whatever method you prefer). While it melts, mix flour and sugar in another bowl. Add chocolate/butter when melted. Add the eggs and mix.

Cook 35 minutes at 180°C

Thanks, Noémie!

Recipe: Chocolate Llama Birthday Cake

My sweet friend Nathalie made this for me for my birthday (along with some llama fun), and it was so good! And, it held up very well being transported on the back of a llama, so you can even take it camping (or on the plane, or wherever!).

Llama Chocolate Truffle Tart

Crust:
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafers, finely ground
6 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 tbsp butter, cut into cubes
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Wrap foil around springform pan (in case of leaks). Lightly butter side of pan.
Stir together ground wafers and butter, then pat onto bottom of pan and 1 inch up side. Bake about 10 minutes, then cool.

For filling: Melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Whisk chocolate into egg mixture. Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until filling 1 inch from edge is set and slightly puffed but center trembles slightly when pan is gently shaken, 20-25 minutes.

Cool completely, about 2 hours. Chill, about 4 hours. Dust with unsweetened cocoa powder.

Healthier Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe: Healthier Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friend Annette shared these on her Facebook page and I made them right away. Success! 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel - I  put mine in a strainer to rinse/dry
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural-style peanut butter (mass market peanut butter like Skippy's will make them come out oily)
• 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (or agave?)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt if your peanut butter is salt free
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (sometimes I use mini chocolate chips, but the big ones worked best here)

The chickpeas serve as "flour" and have a very subtle flavor so they work well with combined with other ingredients, even in a sweet recipe. Combine all  ingredients except for the chocolate chips in a food processor and process until very smooth. Scrape as needed to include any little chunks of chickpeas and process till combined.

Pulse or mix in the chocolate chips (but don't chop them). The mixture will be very thick and sticky.

Wet hands and form into cookie-sized balls. Place onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet. Press down slightly on the balls; they don’t do much rising. Bake for about 12 minutes.

Yield: 12 - 15 cookies 

Quick and Versatile Pesto Recipe

Recipe: Quick and Versatile Pesto Recipe

2 cups fresh basil leaves and/or parsley and/or dandelion greens and/or cilantro, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts or almonds - toasted (pre chop walnuts or almonds first)
3 medium sized garlic cloves, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper - to taste

Combine the basil/parsley/greens/cilantro in with your selected nuts, pulse a few times in food processor. Add garlic and pulse again.

Slowly add olive oil in constant stream while running food processor. Scrape down sides of food processor with spatula as needed. Ad grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We finally ordered our "Christmas" cards - in March! Coming to a mailbox near you soon!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Brazilian "Lemonade"

Brazilian "Lemonade" recipe from my friend Natascha

Ingredients

• 3 limes, quartered (including the peel)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

Preparation

Place all the ingredients in a blender. Add 4 cups cold water and blend on high speed until limes are slightly chopped. Strain into a pitcher and then, with the strainer still resting above the pitcher, slowly pour about 1 more cup water (depending on how sweet you want the drink) through the strainer over the lime pieces to extract all the residual sugar and juice.

Note: add any alcohol you want - try rum.

Feta-Mint Penne with Tomatoes and Capers

Saw this in the newspaper and had it for dinner this evening. It was good and super fast. 

1 lb penne pasta
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halfed
1 TBS capers, drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta (or goat cheese - that is what we had on hand)
2 TBS finely chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste

• Cook past as directed. Drain and set aside. 
• Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and garlic and sauté about 4 minutes. 
• Add tomatoes and cook until just soft, about 2 minutes.
• Add capers and cook for one more minute.
• Remove from heat and stir in feta (if using goat cheese, skip this step and top the past with it at the end, to avoid it melting) and mint. 
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Spoon sauce over past to serve. 

Hearty Tomato Soup

Adapted from Diet for a Small Planet

Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped (I use more)
1 carrot, chopped (I use more)
2 TBS whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups cooiked rice (3/4 cup uncooked)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
3 cups hot milk
1 tbs butter

Heat oil in heavy pot and sauté garlic, onion, celery, carrot until onion is translucent. Add flour, stirring until toasty. If using uncooked rice, add it with flour, and sauté, stirring until it is toasty. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, herbs, and cooked rice (if using it) and cook at least 15 minutes (about 45 minutes with uncooked rice), until rice is done. Remove from heat. Eat as is, or purée in blender or put through a sieve. (I am always too lazy to do that and we like it best chunky.) Add milk and butter and additional salt and pepper to taste. Heat through but do not allow to boil.

Lentil Soup

Laura gave me this recipe, years ago, modified from Diet for a Small Planet. My husband and kids like it a lot!

Olive oil
1 lg onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 (I use more) carrot, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp marjoram
3 cups (I use more) stock
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt
1/4 cup fresh parsley - optional
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup dry (cooking) sherry - optional
1 TBS honey - optional

Heat oil in large pot and sauté onions, carrot and garlic for 3 - 5 minutes. Add herbs and sauté 1 minute. Add stock, lentils, salt, parsley (if using) and tomatoes and cook, covered, until lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. Add sherry and honey (if using). Top with grated cheese to serve, if desired.

Recipe: Health(ier) Gingersnaps from Buzz

Helen's modified recipe for gingersnaps. Thumbs up.

Ingredients: 

1-¼  cups spelt flour

1 cup buckwheat flour

½ cup large-grained natural sugar like sucanot

¾ cup grapeseed oil

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ cup sugar such as sucanot for rolling

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl combine about half of the flours, sugar, oil, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till combined.

Beat or stir in remaining flours.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls.

Roll balls in the sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet. These cookies will not spread, but will in the shape of the balls.

Bake in a 375 F oven for 8-10 minutes till tops are crackled. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 1 minute.

Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

Modified from that classic at Better Homes and Gardens: http://www.food.com/recipe/gingersnaps-264001

Recipe: Corinne's Mexican Hot Chocolate Mix

Corinne's Mexican Hot Chocolate Mix

Corinne posted this in her Facebook stream. Looks like it is tasty!

She says:

If you need a last-minute gift for someone who likes Mexican hot chocolate, try this spicy hot chocolate mix: in a bowl, combine 1-3/4 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1-1/2 cups dark cocoa powder, 3/4 cup white chocolate chips, 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips, 1 TBS sea salt, 2 TBS corn starch, 1 TBS cinnamon, 1 TBS cayenne pepper.

Food process the mixture in small batches. Put in a jar with clever homemade label. To prepare, put 1/3 cup mix in a mug and combine with boiling water or hot milk. Delish, and kids can make!

Recipe: Coconut Chews

I had been looking for a recipe for this cookie for while and recently found this recipe in the Denver Post. Just made them for the Christmas season and they were yum.

Coconut Chews

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 lb. sweetened, shredded coconut

Directions
375 degree oven. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium till light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and scrape the bowl. Add the flour and baking soda and mix until combined. Fold in the coconut by hand. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. The cookies are done when they spread out and turn golden around the edges.

Once Upon a Time by Axel, 1st Grade

Once upon a time
there was a elephant
ho did not know
how to talk.
He met a
pussumm the
pussumm said
do you know
how to talk
the elephant
shok his head
I will teach
you how to talk. He
lernd how
to talk
then he
new how
to talk to
all the
animal's
in the
word

(faithfully transcribed by Mommy)