NANKING CHERRY HONEY JELLY
I am back, at least I might be.  I have to share my Nanking Cherry Jelly with you.  I looked high and low on the internet to find a recipe using honey, alas there is nothing out there.  It could be that my computer skills are rusty, maybe my distaste for sitting in front of a screen for entertainment has led me to lose any such skills that I had.  I guess I need to brush up on my web surfing.  But really who has time???  ok enough chit chat.  This summer I discovered my backyard had a huge Nanking Cherry bush (how did I miss that last year?) and even better was the fact that my neighbour had three as well.  The young couple next door didn't even know what they were, lucky me.  So with that wonderful news I happily picked them all.  It took a few weeks, as the cherries were not all ripe at the same time.  I pulled out my juicer (actually my sister-in-law lets me store it for her) and we were off and running.  I honestly can't tell you how many cups of juice we got but I can share my recipe on how to use that juice to your best advantage.  I have been on the GAPS diet for over a year and a half, lately I have transitioned to eating more Paleo than  GAPS.  All I can tell you is that I don't eat grains, dairy, or refined sugars.  I feel good so long as I stay with my plan.  I bet you are wondering why then do I even bother with things like jelly, as it is mostly sugar.   On the odd occasion that I make coconut flour pancakes I have found that I like having jelly on them.  Reminds me of my childhood.  We grew up on peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches.  I think we only ever had Nanking Cherry Jelly.  There is a long story here, maybe one day I will share it.  Suffice it to say, that is what we ate as kids, all five of us.  I love Nanking Cherry Jelly, it has a flavour all its own.  My sister is the queen of making it, I believe she said she made 14 batches in an hour this summer.  Hmmm I need to practise.  I made three or four different batches this summer, experimenting with amounts of sugar and methods, trying to get it to gel without using sugar.  I think my last batch was the best.

NANKING CHERRY JELLY
3 cups cherry juice
2 cups raw honey
1 pkg no sugar added certo

Pour your juice into a big pot, at least 4 litres, preferably bigger.  Add the certo crystals and stir to dissolve.  Turn the heat on high and bring to a full boil, stirring the whole time.  Add the 2 cups honey.  Bring back to a full boil, boiling for one full minute.  Turn the heat off and let cool for a few minutes.  You will have a lot of foam on the top, you can skim this off if you wish at this point.  On some batches I did and on some I didn't.  I found that mostly it just goes away on its own.  Pour into your already sterilized heated jars, cover with a lid and screw a ring on the top.  I just put them on a cooling rack spaced apart from each other and waited for them to seal.  Now for the variations I used.  All my variations started with 3 cups of juice.  One batch had only one cup honey, it ended up being a little too tart for us.  One batch had 3 cups of honey I think it was good but maybe a little too sweet, I wanted a little bit of the fruits natural tartness to show through.  Funny because I don't normally like tart, and sweet is right up my alley.  I had also water bath processed the first two batches, as instructed by certo.  I must tell you that they did not set very well.  The first two batches are on the runny side, after being in the fridge they pass for jelly, but on the soft side.  My last batch I didn't water bath process (my sister having informed me she never did, nor did my mother before me) Guess I was too small to notice.  Wouldn't you know it but the last batch was perfect, and I was also out of juice.

I will add a little addendum for those of you that might be new to Jelly making.  I heat sterilize my jars in the oven and put the lids in a small pot of water on a simmer.  The lids just need to be warm so that they will seal.

Earthday Birthday Cake

I tell you this cake smells amazing, I am not kidding.  The blending of Earl Grey and Lavender, good enough to eat I think...

It didn't take me all that long to decide what kind of birthday cake to make for Gabs this year.  In this house we drink almost as much tea as we do water, and we drink a lot of both.  Brian thinks we have a tea addiction, I like to think of it as being very eclectic in the flavors we drink.  I am sure that we have so many varieties of tea that we could give David's Tea a serious competition.  One of Gabby's favorite things is tea, she even has tea scented candles.  I am sure she has had dreams about making tea.  So when I came across a pin/blog/post or something  mentioning Earl Grey cupcakes with Lavender icing I knew that was the thing for this years cake.  Both of them are her favorite tea's. (I think) 

I wasn't sure I was going to blog this, as I seemed to have burned my self out completely on Valentine's Day.  I realized how much I hate writing, but I love to share things I have created.  Seriously conflicted here.  I just know how much you will all love this recipe so I have to share.  I read through about 20 different recipes and kind of made this up, I hope that I remember it all.  The cake I adapted from Urban Poser was the Coconut French Pound Cake.  It is  my current go to cake.  I also adapted her Strawberry Frosting.  I have tried at least 50 times to add a link to her blog for this, but my dinosaur of a iMac will not let me do it.  It is most frustrating, could be why I don't post on my blog all that  much.  I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we did.

Earl Grey Coconut Flour Cake

1 cup Coconut milk

3 TBSP Loose Earl Grey Tea, or 3 tea bags

1 cup plus 4 tsp coconut flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

10 whole eggs (4 of them separated)

approx. 1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

Cake:

Heat the milk and steep your tea, allowing to steep until cool or your taste preference.  I left the tea in until it was cooled.  Measure your milk and top it up to one cup with coconut oil. (mine had evaporated away 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease your pans with coconut oil, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Separate 4 of the eggs, setting aside the egg whites.  The bowl with the  yolks you will add the rest of the eggs into.  Mix with hand mixer.  

With the hand mixer, mix the honey, vanilla, lemon juice and the tea infused coconut milk and coconut oil. Mix until well blended.

On low speed add the dry ingredients into honey mixture, continue to mix until no lumps are left.

Add the eggs (not including the 4 egg whites) in three phases.

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites till thick soft peaks form.  Fold into the batter.

Pour the batter into three greased 6 inch round cake pans.  

Bake for 30 min, checking towards the end, as ovens may vary and you don't want them too browned.  They should be a nice golden color, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

I allowed the cakes to cool 15 minutes before removing them from the pan.  Cool on racks until room temperature before icing them.

Lavender Icing

(dairy/refined sugar free)

1 cup organic palm shortening

2/3 cup honey

3 tsp dried food grade lavender flowers

4 TBSP arrowroot powder

4 tsp coconut flour

2 TBSP canned chilled coconut milk cream (just the cream from the top)

heat your honey and stir in the lavender.  Allow it to cool.  Strain and discard the lavender.  

Combine all the ingredients except the coconut milk.  Beat until smooth, and the coconut cream and beat until well combined.  I added a small amount lavender color paste to tint it.

Yay!  I think I might have done it. Finally, after a few epic fails in my attempts to make healthy, (gaps approved, or paleo) thin mints. Ok, I know what I am about to post are not thin mints, but my perfectionist self could not find a way to get them to turn out just like thin mints, hence my frustrating week. I spent over 20 minutes shaping, sculpting, molding and muttering quietly to myself just on one sheet of cookies.  I will confess they will sit in my freezer for a long time before I finish them.  Oh wait they have chocolate on them, I think eventually I will eat them, or the ghost that lives in my house will.  You see none of my four amazing talented and beautiful children would ever admit to eating my girl guide thin mints when they were kids, so it must be a ghost.

Ok back to my fail, they are too big, too time consuming, and not very pretty looking.  I decided that what I needed was something simple and easy but would have the elements of thin mints.  My horse might be ahead of my cart, as it often is, but I think as they cool down and I am waiting for the chocolate to melt that I might have a winner.  I am already planning on who I will share them with.  Obviously they are way easier than my first attempt.  I told Brian that absolutely nobody was eating them but me, I tend to make statements I later I repent of.

I am thinking of ways to package just a few to take to some of my favorite people for valentines day. I could have given this some thought in the last few days but I tend to be spontaneous in my gift giving.  My mother and sister had to wait until January for their Christmas gifts this year.  It is not because I am not organized at Christmas, but have to find just the right gift and that can't be rushed. 

Soooo back to the matter at hand.  Thumbprint chocolate mint cookies, aka thin mint mini cookies.  I made them small on purpose. Part of what I didn't like about my first failed ones was the size.  I actually ate one after it was cooled and it was instant overload.  I felt like I had eaten a tub of greasy mint favoured chocolate. Yuck.  It took me four days to want to try again.

Ohhh they are good, Brian agrees, so it's not just my lack of eating anything that faintly resembles a cookie, that makes these taste good to me.  Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cocoa (I used a raw and organic one from the light cellar)
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or raw honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp sea salt

Instructions:
Mix all the wet ingredients with a hand mixer.  I stirred the coconut flour and cocoa together as my cocoa is a little clumpy.  Add the dry ingredients and blend some more.  The coconut flour will absorb the moisture so let it sit for a few minutes.  I made my balls really small, about a teaspoon is all.  As they don't spread while baking you can easily put 20 on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  After you have them rolled out use your thumb to make the indentation in the middle.  Bake for 15 min at 375.

Allow to cool on the parchment paper.  You will want them cool before you go on to the next step.

Mint filling:
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup solid coconut oil
1 tsp peppermint oil

Mix all the above in a small bowl, smashing the coconut oil against the side of the bowl to mix.  Put it in the fridge to harden for 10 min or until firm.  I used a spoon to scoop a very small amount, enough to fill the thumb print in the cookies.  Each one is a little different, so you can fill as much as you want.  It squishes nicely.  After you have them filled you want to put them in the freezer to harden.

Chocolate coating:
I used enjoy life chocolate chips and as they are rather dear to me I am careful how much I melt.  I would guess I melted 1/4 cup give or take.  I melt my chocolate in a ceramic baking dish in the oven as it is cooling down from making the cookies.  If you try to cover the filling and it is not frozen it just melts and makes a mess.  You will want the chocolate melted enough that you can stir it but not hot.

I hope that my ramble made sense to you.  They were fun to make and will be even more fun to give away.

Choco-Coconut Cookies

I must be on a roll, or all good things come in threes, as I have another delightful cookie recipe for you to try. They are grain free, refined sugar free and dairy free.  I am not sure but they just might be my favorite ones yet.

I should start at the beginning of this story.

 I love to have friends over, dinner, tea or just a visit.  Some very good friends of ours came for dinner last night.  Everything was perfect, the steaks, a new salad we tried from joy the baker, and herb roasted potatoes.  Our friends brought the desert.  This is usually a trick for me as there are so many things I can't eat and desert just doesn't work unless I make it myself.  Now I must say I didn't say no to these cookies.  The lonely cookies that survived the night did not survive my daughter the next day.  So I just had to make some more tonight.  There are some of you out there needing to make something new as well.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
2Tbsp maple syrup
2 eggs
2Tbsp cocoa
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Pinch of baking soda

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix oil, maple syrup and eggs.  Mix in coconut, cocoa, and baking soda.  Fold in chocolate chips and almonds.  Drop by teaspoon onto parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 20 min.  Cool on parchment until cool.  Enjoy. We did.

I would put more photos on but for some reason the blog is conspiring against me and I can't get more photos on for some reason.  Trust me they are good.  I used a fine flake coconut but they are better with a larger flake coconut.

Chocolate love

It might just be love at first taste, maybe even just the thought gives my heart a little flutter. You see I have always loved chocolate.  Like my father before me, though I suspect it is not a mutual adoration. I am still in denial. This is my story and I think I will tell it this way... One bright beautiful afternoon my good friend Charly came over to get a little help with her knitting.  Her very good idea, no wait great idea to bake as well was a welcome addition.  We made Brownie Cookies.  I don't know where she got the recipe from, but I changed a few things for the second batch.  Yes I made two batches in one day.  Here is the second variation as I think we all preferred them, I must admit they were both so good though that I will have to make more very soon.

Brownie Cookies: Grain-free, Sugar-free
4 eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup fat (softened butter, ghee, coconut oil)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon real salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon organic coffee (like, already made to drink. Not coffee grounds.)
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup cacao nibs ( I didn't have any for the second batch and they were good without)
1/2 cup coconut flour
Instructions

Beat the eggs. A LOT. My new trick is using an immersion  blender for this. When you’re baking without baking soda, you want to make sure you fluff up the eggs as much as you can.

Then, use the blender to mix in the applesauce  til it’s smoothly blended with the eggs.
Add in the fat, honey, salt, vanilla, coffee (I learned recently that coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate really nicely, and if you just use a little, it doesn’t taste like coffee), cocoa powder, and cacao nibs. Blend until it’s smooth.

Then, slowly mix in the coconut flour, allowing it to “settle” in the mixture as you go. You may need more or less than 1/2 a cup. But for this recipe, I was aiming for more of a batter-like consistency than a dough-like one, since all my attempts at coconut flour cookies have shown me that they do not rise, spread, or otherwise change shape in the oven hardly at all. I don’t want ball-shaped cookies. I want flatter, cookie-shaped cookies. So I make the “dough” thinner for cookies like this.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check the bottoms to see if they’ve turned a little darker in color. Hard to see from the top since everything is brown!

Well here I sit staring at a blank page, or my version of that.  I wonder why on earth I started a blog, what was I thinking?  Where do I want to go with it.  In the past, random gym people encouraged me to write about my clients and life at the gym. It seemed like a breech of their privacy even if I changed their names. I don't know that my daily life is all that exciting.  Not to mention I would rather knit or bake or quilt or read or almost anything than write.  It is a toss up to clean the bathrooms or write on my blog.  You get what I am saying?  Although I see the need to improve myself, or shall we say do something's I might rather not. Hmmm my grandmother is most likely not impressed with my grammar.  You see if I try to self analyze, I have tried to please those around me all my life. I am a pleaser.  Not always a good thing.  I remember a good friend telling me an eon ago that I needed to love myself before anyone else could love me. Wise words, but very hard for me. I was always trying to please too many people.  We can start with my sister.  I have adored her forever.  I remember a time when I would do anything for her.  I am now maybe a little more reasonable. I still love her unreservedly but can now live my own life. You see I went to visit her yesterday and make some wooden blocks with her. It was a very nostalgic moment for me.  I used to go to her place a few times a week when my kids were little, if we lived in the same city.  When she lived in Vancouver we were there so often, if you asked my youngest Simonne where we lived she would say "Bancouber" in her cute little voice.  My she was adorable.  Kind of like the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad...  Yup that is Simonne still.  I was really going to tell you all about how I had gone to my sister Cheri's house yesterday and what fun we had. I came home telling Brian I need to go more often, as I feel the need to organize my house better.  I wish I was nearly as neat and organized as Cheri is. Oh my house is clean, but nowhere as nicely put together as my sisters is.  I seem to be going in ten directions at once. I might try to think I have one project on the go at any given time, sadly that is not the truth.

I laugh as I read over what I have written. I must confess I have told myself I can not edit myself to excessively or I would never post anything.

So back to my sister, I love her house, her style, and her blog.  Don't get me wrong I am not jealous at all. I don't want to be her.  I want to be me, you see I have learned to love myself.  I might actually be better at a few things than I thought I was. I love to sew, bake, knitting is a newly reclaimed love. I am actually playing with the thought of learning to spin my own wool.  Ok one day after I organize my house better.  I just have to take time out to play with my adorable grand kids. I can't seem to get enough of them, they are so cute. I just hope that in some way I can make their world a better place.

As I find myself rambling. I feel the need to go knit, as my grain free coconut lemon blueberry biscotti finishes baking.