Lemonades√

This is the easiest, most delicious and refreshing of all home-made drinks. Make sure you have a jar or bottle of basic syrup in the fridge for visitors.

Basic Syrup
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Heat the water, dissolve the sugar in it and let it cool (heat destroys vitamin C) and add the lemon juice.
Store in the fridge and add still or sparkling water to taste and as much or as little ice as you like!
It couldn't be easier!

Remember - all the ones and double up for larger quantities.

Pretty in Pink
Take a pound of fresh strawberries, wash and hull them. Chop and simmer them in a cup of water for a few minutes. Blend or mash (a potato masher works great). Cool and sieve (you don't want any seeds or pulp). Let it sit for an hour i.e. until the pulp sinks to the bottom. Add one cup of clear strawberry juice to the lemon syrup for each cup of lemon juice.

Psychedelic Purple
The taste of the prickly pear is more subtle-it's the color that is absolutely spectacular. It's hard to believe it came from nature. You can grow your own if you live in a place where they grow - or you can buy them now in most supermarkets - especially ones specializing in south american foods. Cut 4 or 5 prickly pears in half and scoop their innards out into a pan. Use gloves. The prickles are tiny and barbed - they are a complete pain to find and remove. Add a cup or so of water and simmer until the fruit softens and breaks up. Smash with a potato masher. Push through a sieve to get the juice but not the seeds. Add a cup of prickly pear juice for each cup of lemon juice.

Notes!

Add more or less lemon juice to taste - one cup can be too tart for some and too sweet for others.

Use soft brown sugar instead of white for a wonderfully different flavor or half brown/half white.

Try agave syrup instead of sugar.

Add strips of lemon rind (no white pith - just thin strips of rind) to the hot water and leave in the syrup - the flavors will intensify. Fish the strips out after a day otherwise it can become too bitter.

Use Meyers' Lemons or Limes for a differently delicious flavor.

Add a handful of mint leaves to the hot water for a refreshing mint lemonade.

Prickly Pear Limeade is not such a nice color - the green turns it a muddy purple.

Grow your own stevia ... the fresh young leaves are a completely different kettle of fish (!) to the odd-tasting powders or liquids available at Wholefoods. Lemonade made with stevia will not keep - it needs to be made fresh each time.

Make a 'hardly any calories' Moroccan Mint Tea with fresh mint and stevia leaves. Throw a handful of each into a jug and pour over freshly boiled water. Steep for 5-10 minutes and serve warm in beautiful glasses or cold with ice.

Sour Orange and Mango Coconut Ice Creams√

Maggi came to stay for two simultaneously hot and cold days. The weather was steamy hot and the food, drinks and her visit were all super cool. We are in the middle of a model, living out of two rooms with just half a kitchen and a couple of smally window a/c units but this didn't matter a jot - we cooked up a storm and talked each others' heads off.

We had a small pay-per-view fest to accompany the ice creams: Frost/Nixon (surprisingly entertaining), Gran Torino (funny, touching and very very clever), Slumdog Millionaire (not sure I understand what all the fuss was about). The Sour Orange Ice Cream is brilliantly tart and bright - a spectacular palette cleanser at any time! The Mango Coconut Ice Cream is more sweet and sumptuous. Together they are incredible!

Sour Orange (Tart Lemon) Ice Cream

1 cup sour orange juice (strained) plus the juice of 1 juicy lemon OR 1 cup of lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup half and half (or light cream)
Tiny pinch of salt

Heat the sugar slowly in the milk until dissolved
Add everything else and freeze.
I don't like to add the zest - it's adds a confusing bitter note.

Mango Coconut Ice Cream (vegan)

1 large can sweetened mango pulp (1 lb. 14 oz. or 850 g) *
1 medium can coconut milk (13.5 oz. or 400 g)
1 tablespoon toasted coconut (fine/unsweetened) or more to taste
juice of 1 juicy lime
1/2 teaspoon crushed cardamom seeds
1-2 tablespoon/s triple sec **
Tiny pinch of salt

Throw everything into the ice cream maker and freeze away!

I layered these two into a bombe - two layers of each, alternating ... the tart lemon/orange contrasting and complementing the smooth mango very nicely thank you.

* Alphonso is the best ... the King of Mangos ... it has an incomparable color (dark orange) and flavor. You can find cans of these in Indian or Asian stores. Canned Kesar mango pulp is also fabulous.
** The triple sec is optional. If you want to avoid alcohol you would need to add a bit more sugar (or agave syrup) to taste.

Figgy Frozen Yogurt√

This sounds just saw awful ... an ocean from its actual divine deliciousness. Imagine a creamy, sweet, smooth ice cream shot through with tiny seeds crunching delightfully in the background. Calling it Fig Ice Cream doesn't make it sound much better and since I made it with yogurt not cream 'n' eggs I can't really call it ice cream.

This week the temperatures soared into the high 90s (feels like the high 100s because of the 100% humidity). We are in the midst of a remodel and half our house is in storage plus we are living out of two rooms. The a/c is off for a month and while we are thankful for a couple of window a/c units they are just about keeping us cool enough. When I get desperately hot I stand in front of the freezer with the door open. It's delicious for 10 seconds or so, or until the eco-police in my head start yelling at me to shut the bloody door.

To ease my guilt (and to get closer to the cold stuff) I decided to root around amongst the tupperwares to see whether there was anything vaguely interesting and came across a big tub of fig puree, an overflow from a huge pot I cooked up and pureed last year after a successful farmer's market foray.

I defrosted it and for every 2 cups of puree I added 1 cup of whole yoghurt and about 1/2 cup of simple syrup (1 cup of sugar + 1 cup of water heated until the sugar dissolves). Figs are so sweet they don't need much extra sugar. Of course, those with sweet teeths can add more sugar to taste and those who want a creamier ice cream can add more yoghurt (or cream). I used Brown Cow yogurt and carefully included all the cream from the top.

Randi and Corky dropped in and we turned the fans on and stuffed our faces with ice cream until we felt cool enough to take the dogs for a walk.

A Grown up Meatloaf√

My experience with meatloaves have often been disappointing. They have been heavy, ketchup soaked affairs reminiscent of overcooked burgers. I could never see the point.

This evening we happened to have three different kinds of ground meat in the fridge - 4 lbs altogether. I felt compelled to try and make a better, more grown up kind of meat loaf and I am happy to say I succeeded! This is a light, moist meatloaf full of flavor. It was absolutely delicious with a pile of buttery mash and a bottle of unfiltered, wheat beer.


I used roughly equal quantities of turkey, pork and beef but you can use anything as long as you use two or preferably three kinds of meat. It really does make a difference to use several kinds of meat. For every pound of meat add the following - doubling, trebling, quadrupling the quantities for two, three or four pounds of meat.

1 smallish/medium onion - finely chopped
2 sticks of celery (including the leafy tops)- finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic - chopped
1 small zucchini - grated
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
1/2 cup matzo meal (or breadcrumbs or crackers)
1/2 cup yogurt
1 egg
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Coleman's mustard powder (optional)
1 tsp dried thyme or any other dried herbs (or a tbsp of fresh)

Melt the onions and garlic in the oil on a medium heat for 10 minutes or so - until they are transparent (be careful not to brown them). Add the celery and the zucchini and saute for another 5-10 minutes.
Throw all ingredients into a big bowl or pot and with clean hands schmoosh everything until they are all fully mixed ... until the meat and sauteed veggies and all dry and wet ingredients are all fully incorporated.

Form into a tidy mound on a greased aluminium sheet on a baking sheet.

Pour 1/2-1 cup of pasta sauce ... I used a spicy Siciliana sauce.
Bake at 350 degrees until 160 degrees (about an hour) then let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

While the loaf was cooking I made a sauce with the rest of the jar of Siciliana sauce, half a jar of Bonesuckin' Sauce and some Worcestershire sauce, simmering it until it reduced and thickened. If you don't have Bonsucking sauce to hand then you can use any other bar-b-q sauce on your pantry shelf!

Carrot Pumpkin Cake with Citrus Drizzle√

Today we went with Randi and Corky to see Lorelei's lake house. Two houses actually. A divine log home and a perfectly enchanting cracker home - both of which made me instantly long for a lake house of my own. Just one. It was a beautiful afternoon - we walked in the woods around the lake and then ate Kathy's yummy soup and Lorelei's divine, bejewelled salad at Kathy & Julie's house. And cake. We were so hungry we started with cake while we waited for the soup to heat up. We felt like intruders because neither Kathy nor Julie were there. Happy, hungry intruders. We sat on their dock watching the sun set as flocks of cranes flew off for the night. Altogether it was a perfectly perfect afternoon.

It couldn't have been easier to throw this cake together but it was so incredibly heavy in the tin that I could not imagine it being edible. I couldn't have been wronger. Astonishingly it wasn't just edible. The whole idea of eating something so luscious made from carrots, pumpkins, pecans and brown rice was pretty funny.

I started by looking up carrot and pumpkin cake on the internet to see if it had been done and it had. Great. I couldn't believe the recipes though - canned pumpkin. Forget it. Also canned pineapple and coconut. That did not sound delicious to me, not alongside pumpkin and carrot. Not at all. Also - in the spirit of wanting to make something that sounded like dinner but presented like a cake I decided to make it with brown rice flour and less sugar. In fact, I abandoned the recipes altogether and made it up as I went along, flinging in more of this and less of that (by accident) and hoping for the best as I heaved it into the oven!

It's a wheat free cake and if you make the drizzle from sugar and citrus juice it is dairy free as well.
It might be an interesting cake to give to recalcitrant children who are intractably picky eaters. All the important food groups are present and correct, and if they eat muffins I am pretty sure they'll eat this cake. You could always switch out half of the brown rice flour with white rice flour and half the brown sugar with white. That'll make it a lighter, less 'wholefoody' cake.

Veggies
- 8 oz carrots, grated
- 8 oz pumpkin grated

Wet Things
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons sour orange (or Meyer’s lemon) juice
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup grape seed oil (any other light oil like sunflower or safflower)

Dry Things
- 3 cups brown rice flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda (not baking powder)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups soft brown sugar
- 6 oz pecan nuts (or 2 cups)

Preheat oven to 375° F.
Grease and flour one biggish (10 inch) pan or 2 smaller ones.
Grate the veggies (food processor works great) and throw them into a big bowl.
Add all the wet things and give it a good stir.
Throw in the dry things and stir well..
Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 15 mins – 1 hour 30 mins or until a bamboo skewer or wooden tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Citrus Drizzle
Mix together softened cream cheese and butter.
Add loads of confectioner’s sugar and mix like crazy.
Add sour orange juice and/or Meyer’s lemon juice to taste.
Add more sugar if it’s too thin.
I'm bad at making these frostings or whatever they are supposed to be.
We ended up spooning it over slices of cake in our hands. There was nothing bad doing so.

Additional Notes
This recipe makes one large cake - the quantities are easily halved for a small (or bread tin size) cake tin.
I bet it can be cooked in muffin or cupcake tins as well. Of course it'll cook quicker in a smaller tin and quicker still in muffin or cupcake tins.

So what is the difference between baking soda and baking powder and does it matter.
Apparently it does but I read this page twice and still don't completely get it.
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm

Roasted Roots with White Bean Puree√

Carmen and Joa came to dinner and they brought their puppies. The humans played with cards afterwards while the puppies played with bones. Everyone was happy, especially Carmen who won nearly every game!

I cooked one of my favorite winter vegetable dishes for dinner. I'd gone crazy buying root veggies at the farmer's market and then found organic parsnips and white sweet potatoes at Ward's (the best supermarket in town) so I had to make this yummy dish.

Prep a bunch of root veggies. The trick is to cut everything roughly the same kind of size - not too small, not too big. If they are too small they'll cook to a mush - if they are too big they won't brown. Last night I prepped the following:
White sweet potatoes (scrubbed and cubed)
Carrots (peeled and cut into fairly equal size chunks)
Parsnips (quartered lengthwise)
Butternut squash (cubed)
Beetroots (they were little guys so I just quartered them)

Throw the prepped veggies into a big bowl and drizzle over with olive oil.
Toss until all the veggies are nicely coated with oil.
Sprinkle on some salt and a bunch of your favorite chopped herbs (fresh or dried rosemary, thyme and sage are all good)
Tip into a baking pan, pyrex or ceramic baking dish - big enough that the veggies aren't too deep.
Lightly cover the dish with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
Throw in lots of peeled garlic cloves (I use 15-20 or more) and toss lightly - don't schmoosh the veggies.
Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for a further 15-30 minutes or until some of the veggies on top are browning nicely.

I served this with a White Bean Puree
Soak some fava beans (AKA lima or broad beans) in water overnight.
Strain, rinse and boil vigorously for 3-5 minutes (skimming the scum).
Strain, rinse and add enough cold water to cover and then some.
Simmer for 30 minutes or until soft then blend till smooth.
Add salt to taste plus more olive oil than seems reasonable and serve warm.
This was unexpectedly divine - especially with the roasted roots.

Variations:
Other roots that could be added are celeriac, rutabaga (swede), turnips and/or onions.
You can add cherry tomatoes along with the garlic cloves and drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over it before tossing it.

November 13th, 2009
Last night we rooted around for some friends to share our dinner because I made such a humongous pan of roasted roots ... this was my best yet and including the following raw veg:

• White sweet potatoes - cubed
• Purple sweet potatoes (okinawa) - cubed
• Small onions - quartered
• Garlic - whole cloves
• Carrots - thick rounds
• Beets - eighths
• Brussel sprouts - whole
• Seminole pumpkin - cubed
• Artichoke heart - quartered
• Cranberries - as is
• Chestnuts - roasted and peeled

I mixed them in a big bowl with some olive oil and some dried herbs - I threw in some fennel seeds for fun and they were! The potatoes and squash were home grown ... our first this year ... incredibly exciting. I baked them at 400 degrees for 3/4 of an hour covered (I placed a piece of aluminum foil over the pan, then stirred them to mix the oil well but super gently so as not to smash the cranberries to smithereens. I removed the cover and roasted them uncovered for 1/2 an hour ... turning up the oven to 425 for that last 1/4 hour to brown them.

The cranberries gave the dish a surprise zing and the chestnuts a deliciously earthy and festive flavor. Yum!!!!

Pumpkin Pie√

I used Seminole Pumpkins for this pie - it's a Florida pumpkin that grows like a weed. It has a delicious, dark orange flesh that is perfect for pumpkin pies. This is Delia Smith's recipe and it's divinely creamy. The molasses is a brilliant touch. I used ready-made graham crust shells from the supermarket - these worked perfectly. This recipe made two pies one of which we ate a couple of hours before dinner and one a couple of hours afterwards with a cup of tea and some leftovers!

1 lb (450 g) pureed pumpkin flesh
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk (reserve the white)
1 tablespoon molasses
3 oz (75 g) soft dark brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
10 fl oz (275 ml) double cream

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

Now for the filling.
Whisk the eggs and extra yolk together in a large bowl.
Add the molasses, the sugar, spices, the cream and the pumpkin purée.
Pour the filling into the shells and bake for 45-60 minutes, by which time it will puff up a bit around the edges but still feel slightly wobbly in the center.
Remove it from the oven and place the tin on a wire cooling rack.
Serve with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (or both!)

Note: The original recipe has ground allspice, nutmeg and ginger in it but I didn't have any of these so I added more cinnamon and some vanilla essence - this turned out to be perfectly perfect!