I tend to make all of my fruit pies the exact same way… and I am always stuffing my face very happy with the results. This raspberry pie is no exception. Once I cut the first slice, it barely lasted 30 minutes.
Mmmm pie.
Archive for June, 2010
Purslane & Mint Pesto Vermicelli Salad
This cold noodle salad combines a lot of great flavors and textures to make the perfect summertime meal. It also includes my newly discovered friend, the purslane.
These beautiful and nutritious succulent plants are often weeded from folks’ gardens. Last week, as I was weeding my own garden, I came across this little plant that resembled a jade plant. I decided to let it go, as it simply was too beautiful to pull up from the ground. That exact same day, I was researching edible wild plants (one of my fave things to do), and wouldn’t you know it… the plant I left alone turned out to be something that should be in my garden!
Purslanes were apparently one of Ghandi’s favorite foods, and they are quickly becoming one of mine.
I had never heard of them prior to my recent discovery, but the purslane is actually a nutritional powerhouse! Now that I recognize the greatness of this little plant, I have been encouraging it to spread far and wide in my garden. It seems to prefer the company of my kales to any other veggie. Seriously, so would I …
I have never seen a purslane at the grocery store, unlike it’s edible weed friend, the dandelion. Like I said, I had no clue what it was before I almost weeded the poor thing. But, then again, I’m hardly a foodie. Feel free to substitute fresh green peas, spinach or arugula for the purslane. Those veggies aren’t quite as awesome as the humble purslane, but they’ll do.
Chocolate Raspberry Cake with “Anniversary” Glaze
On June 23, 2010
In Baked Goods, Cakes, Chocolate, Desserts, Frostings and Icings, Gluten-Free
With 40 Comments
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My hubs and I just celebrated our ♥ wedding anniversary ♥. I made this raspberry chocolate cake for us to indulge in, along with a bottle of wine from our wedding. The cake (which has since been completely polished off) had a delicate crumb and fragrant ribbon of fresh raspberries and preserves in the middle of each slice. The “anniversary” glaze, a simple mix of red wine, confectioner’s sugar & coconut oil, made the cake extra special.
It turned out to be a really good cake.
Alright, it was better than good. It was amazing.
Flavorful. Excellent. Almost gourmet-ish.
My husband and I were devouring the leftovers of the glaze straight from the bowl. Even as I am writing this post, we keep talking about how stupid good that cake was. Maybe we are biased because it was our anniversary cake… but I have my doubts. :)
If anything, try using the just the glaze on something else: a cookie or scone, strawberries, a piece of toast, a spoon, anything! I recommend a shiraz or tempranillo blend (because I love them), but wine of any sort would be pretty good… even the super cheap stuff. The result of combining confectioner’ s sugar with wine creates a sweet (but tart) and classy coating that compliments the chocolate and raspberries with the utmost generosity.
I only managed to jot down my measurements for the cake. So, use your best judgment when making the filling and the glaze. The filling should be the consistency of a thick jam, and the glaze should be the consistency (before hardening) of Elmer’s glue. Yes, I’m serious.
Raspberry Chablis Gelée
When I was growing up, I felt super lucky to have a large wooded backyard. I spent almost all of my (non-school) time out there, no matter what the weather was doing. One of my favorite seasons was summertime- when the raspberry bushes would flourish. I ate a lot of raspberries as a child. I looked forward to them every single year, for 12 years. When I moved out of my parents’ house at the age of 18, and ventured into my own world, the raspberries stayed behind.
Smoked Southwestern Burgers
It’s raining here at my house today. Hard. So, I thought I would send out some sunny vibes by posting my latest “for the grill” creation.
The family and I have been enjoying burgers quite regularly now that official grilling season has begun. We created this burger because we had a tube of soyrizo ( I can’t remember which brand, but I know it’s gluten free and pretty readily available), and we wanted to grill it, but there is absolutely no way to grill that stuff unless it is combined with some additional and pretty sturdy ingredients. It will crumble through even the tightest of grill grates, which can make an otherwise super-fun BBQ… totally suck.
So after a few attempts, with the results being rather mediocre burgers, this little gem was born. The real kicker for this recipe is smoking the burgers. It seals in all the “Southwestern” flavor with an extra dose of awesome.
Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (GF)
Sometime last week, as I opened up my Google reader, I was greeted by this.
Is that not the most wonderful and genius muffin ever? It made me mad with muffin envy. Those bad boys just looked so damn good I set myself a goal to make muffins ASAP. I wanted to de-glutenize Mihl’s version, but I had no Dandies or cranberries. Plus, I really suck at looking at/using other people’s recipes. I pretty much never follow them as written. Admittedly, when I look at all the other fabulous food blogs out there, I skim over the whole “recipe” part and get right to the photos. Look again… you know you want to.
But, back to the issue at hand…
Before I started to even preheat my oven, I realized that I hadn’t yet created a gluten-free version of my own chocolate muffins. Naturally, I decided to nip that problem right in the bud. I started by making a simple chocolate muffin that accompanied our family on a long hike this weekend. By round two, I had created the muffin monstrosity pictured above.
I also happened to pick up some Dandies at the grocery this past weekend while we were out in “the big city” gorging on ridiculously huge and ever-so-tasty dosai (plural? for dosa). It all made for a pretty spectacular weekend.
Mint & Apple Chickpea Salad
On June 4, 2010
In Gluten-Free, Salad dressing, Salads, Side dishes, Veggies
With 8 Comments
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The ingredients for this salad came together based on what I had on hand, including the first two crops ready for harvest in our garden: mint and green onions. Yay for homegrown food!
We had also picked up some “real” tomatoes from the farmers market earlier this week, so I threw them in there too. All the flavors mingled together very nicely.
Tossed with pureed avocado (my favorite base for a salad dressing), this little concoction was surprisingly good!
It’s like a minty, beany, pasta salad!
Cherry Tart-lettes
Over the weekend, the family and I stocked up on plenty-o-cherries. While I was excited about eating them as is- savoring each sweet and juicy bite- my son had another plan for them: cherry pie.
He must have asked me to make cherry pie at least ten times this past weekend.
Truthfully, the thought of rolling out a pie crust in 90 degree weather seemed less than appealing…but I didn’t want to disappoint my little man. So, I compromised with some tiny cherry tarts. Similar to the requested pie, with a little less fuss. These tarts can be made quickly, with relatively little effort. Pitting the cherries is the hardest part.
They are super cute too. Kinda like cookies and pie and muffins- all in one!
