Four Infused Chocolate Sweets for Your Sweetheart [but mostly for you, let’s be real]

Dear sweethearts,

Sometimes you just need some chocolate, ya know? You can make these under the guise of crafting sweet treats for your Valentine, but make sure you put a secret stash in the freezer for, like, emergencies or whatever. Chocolate emergencies are a thing.

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I dreamed up these recipes by having a stack of chocolate in my kitchen, a row of Vitality oils begging to become something delicious, and an insatiable crave for the fruit of the cacao bean in my heart. I ended up creating these based on what I had on hand, and a desire make Valentine’s treats that are gluten-free.

These are basically assembly instructions since these recipes are so ridiculously easy, you pretty much just melt a bunch of stuff and then let it get solid again. Enjoy. 

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Ingredients

Sugar and Chocolate: Use organic. Use high-quality chocolate. Use Ghirardelli’s or better. Whatever you choose, know that it matters. Cheap chocolate cannot be dressed up enough to taste like quality chocolate. Quality chocolate needs no dressing up to taste amazing.

Essential Oils for Infusing: I use Young Living’s line of Vitality oils for flavoring and spicing up dishes in the kitchen! Vitality oils are approved by the FDA for ingestion, are labelled for supplement use and are delicious, fresh and 100% chemical-free. They are distilled without the use of solvents and grown in pesticide-free soil without any chemical sprays – not even organic ones! You might already have essential oils for flavoring, or you can go here and click “Member” to purchase a 50% off bundle of oils, including five Vitality oils. (Read more about essential oil stuffs here)

download all the recipes in one handy PDF 

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Frankly My Dear Peanut Butter Cups

Rhett Butler might bring the swoon to the silver screen, but these peanut butter cups will have your lover falling all over you with adoration. I don’t even know what I just said but I was really trying to work that Frankly phrase into the name of these delicious, freaking amazing cups of delight. 

printable PDF

1 cup organic, creamy peanut butter, well-churned to mix in the oil **CHECK the label – even “natural” and “organic” peanut butters may include additional sugar, palm oils and hydrogenated soybean oil**
1 Tablespoon Kerrygold or raw butter, melted
1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
12 ounces Ghirardelli’s semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces Ghiradelli’s milk chocolate chips
2 drops Frankincense Vitality essential oil
Paper mini-muffin cup liners, about 30 – 35

  1. Whisk 1/2 cup peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar and salt together with a fork. Set aside.
  2. In a glass microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter together, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. When fully silky-smooth, stir in 2 drops of Frankincense Vitality oil and stir vigorously.
  3. Place about one teaspoon of chocolate in each mini muffin cup.
  4. Spoon a teaspoon of peanut butter filling onto each chocolate blob.
  5. Spoon a final teaspoon of chocolate on top of each peanut butter blob, smoothing out the chocolate. Remove to the refrigerator or freezer to chill until firm; store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer and ENJOY! into the center of each muffin cup.

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Citrus Dream Meltaways

My friend Holly taught me how to make meltaways back in Virginia Beach. I couldn’t remember exactly how we did it so let’s be real, I just had to make measurements up to recreate our chocolate experience – but follow these measurements approximately and you’ll have delightful melt-in-your-mouth chocolate treats. You can use any flavorings you like – citrus is a particular favorite of mine – and the more chocolate to coconut oil ratio you have, the less melty they will be. 

printable PDF

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1 cup organic expeller-pressed coconut oil or virgin coconut oil if you like the coconut flavor
12 ounces Ghirardelli’s semisweet chocolate chips
5 drops Citrus Fresh Vitality essential oil blend
4 drops Orange Vitality essential oil

  1. In a glass microwave-safe bowl or a double-boiler, melt the chocolate and coconut oil together. For microwave: heat for 60 seconds, stir, then heat for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
  2. Remove from heat/microwave and add Vitality oils (other flavors I love: Peppermint Vitality for a peppermint patty flavor, Lavender Vitality for a tea party, Ginger, Clove and Nutmeg Vitality at Christmas time, Cinnamon Bark Vitality for a spicy burst …).
  3. Pour or spoon into small silicone molds or paper mini-muffin cups. Freeze until solid; store in an airtight container in the freezer. Melt in your mouth GOODNESS!!

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Bergamot Berry Fudge

This is an easy, easy fudge. It’s stupid easy. You can make it on the stove in a heavy pan, in a double boiler or in the microwave – whatever floats your chocolate fountain boat. 

printable PDF

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12 ounces Ghirardelli’s semisweet chocolate chips
9 ounces butterscotch chips
1 14-ounce can organic sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or caramel extract
1/2 cup Ningxia wolfberries, separated so they aren’t in one sticky ball **
5 drops Bergamot Vitality oil

  1. In a heavy pot, a double-boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and condensed milk together. For microwave: heat for 60 seconds, remove and stir, then heat for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted and smooth.
  2. Remove from the heat/microwave and stir in extract, wolfberries and Bergamot Vitality oil.
  3. Pour into a 9×9 pan and let cool (it will firm up very quickly!!) Cut into cubes of divine goodness and float away on a blissful cloud of all your happiest dreams come true. I mean literally. Also share some with people you really really like.

**I buy the Ningxia wolfberries from Young Living in one-lb bags. Absolutely delicious, and bursting with antioxidants. Just what we need to make our fudge a lil less, um, guilty.

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Infused Brownies Virtually From Heaven

Use your favorite brownie recipe or mix to infuse the Brownies Of Your Dreams.  Serve with lavender-vanilla ice cream, oh creative one! 

printable PDF

1 Ghirardelli’s triple-fudge brownie mix, another brownie mix you love like this awesome gluten free one for an 8×8 pan of brownies, or a single-pan recipe of these seriously amazing Paleo brownies

Lavender-Lemon Brownies 
5 drops Lemon Vitality essential oil
2 drops Lavender Vitality essential oil

Peppermint-Orange Brownies 
8 drops Orange Vitality essential oil
4 drops Peppermint Vitality essential oil

Frankincense-Bergamot Brownies 
3 drops Frankincense Vitality essential oil
8 drops Bergamot Vitality essential oil

  1. Stir together liquids for the brownies and drop in the Vitality oils of your choice. Add dry ingredients and continue with recipe as directed.
  2. Serve to an adoring, grateful crowd of brownie lovers, or, don’t share. You choose.

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If you have brilliant ways to use the Vitality oils, I am ALWAYS keen to hear them!!!!! Shout out your fabulous ways in the comments below and I will try them out in my own kitchen!!!!!

LOVE to all you beautiful WONDERFUL readers!!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!!!!

Mrs H
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Rustic Bone Broth, Bouillon and Powdered Broth

Novemberites and lovers of fall and food,

Bone broth has to be one of the cheapest, most nutrient-dense sources of food out there. One of the oldest and most revered foods, it has long been the way matriarchs prepared nourishing food with meager expenditure. Cooked until the bone is crumbling and breaking, bone broth is rich in gelatin, collagen, protein, glycine and minerals. It creates foundational building blocks for our gut health, skin, hair, bones, teeth, and it can be a wonderfully soothing source of nutrition for the ill, or for anyone suffering from morning sickness.

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Not only can you make it cheaply, but you can easily store bone broth by cooking it down and making bouillon cubes, or dehydrating and powdering it.

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Bone broth can be expensive to buy, but preparing it from scratch costs almost nothing – even when you use the finest, grass-fed, organic bones and vegetables.

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I use leftover bones from our meals (even the drumstick you picked clean at dinner – that makes great bone broth. Squeamish about cooties? Remember, it’ll be cooking for over 24 hours – even if there WERE any cooties on that bone, they’ll be gone by the time you strain your broth!).  Wilful waste makes woeful want! Waste not, want not.  I use fish-heads and bones from local fishermen, and carcasses from cutting up whole chicken or turkey for dinner. The bones from ham, beef and any other meat we eat go straight into a pot, along with any vegetable scraps from preparing dinner.

I'm not above prominent product placement. Gary made this mahogany salt cellar; click the picture to see more.

I’m not above a little prominent product placement!  Gary made this mahogany salt cellar; click the picture to see more.

Print recipe for bone broth, bouillon and powdered broth

Rustic Bone Broth

2 pounds bones – leftover roasted poultry bones or piece bones, ham bone or pork chop bones, oxtail bones, fish heads or spines, or boiled and rinsed pig’s feet
Butt from 1 – 2 bunches of celery
Butts and/or skins from 4 – 10 carrots
Butts, skins and any pieces from 1 – 3 onions
Potato skins
Any other vegetable scraps, skins, tops, butts
2 – 4 tablespoons fat (coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, bacon drippings, duck fat), optional
2 – 4 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar (optional), to help draw minerals from the bones
Sprigs thyme, sage and a few bay leaves, salt and pepper
Filtered water

Prep the bones  |  If bones are not already cooked, heat oil in a large skillet. Add bones and herbs and sear them for a few moments on the stove. Note: Cover and let sit for 45 minute if you are using beef bones; or let them roast, uncovered, at 375F for 45 minutes.  Beef bones should always be roasted for 45 minutes or more prior to use.  Fish bones can skip this step entirely – do not pre-roast or sear them (if they are pre-cooked, that is fine).

Stovetop |  Place all scraps, seared or roasted bones, herbs, any leftover oil and cider vinegar (if using) in a large stockpot.  Add water to cover, or up to 2 gallons.  Cover with a lid and bring up to a strong simmer. Turn down heat and let simmer for 24 – 48 hours.

Crockpot  |  Place all scraps, seared or roasted bones, herbs, any leftover oil and cider vinegar (if using) in a large crockpot. Add water to cover. Top with lid and bring to LOW temp; cook for 24 – 48 hours.

Continuous broth  |  Follow directions for crockpot. Every 24 hours for 5 -7 days, remove 1 – 2 quarts of bone broth and replace with fresh water. Use a large spoon to continuously break and distress the bones each time you remove broth.

Usage  |  Bone broth should be consumed daily; use it to cook rice, quinoa, millet or other grains. Drink a mug of it, well-seasoned, as a nourishing and comforting beverage. Bring a thermos to work or school. Use to cook pieces of meat and vegetables for delicious and nutritious soups!

Print recipe for bone broth, bouillon and powdered broth

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We should visit more soon; have you checked my events page to see if I’ll be in your area? Maybe we can chat over a glass of kombucha, or a mug of steaming bone broth!

Until then,

Andrea

But I can never give up rice! You can’t make me!

I’m not a doctor. I’m not anything.
I just love preparing good food, and studying food science.
And eating.

Dear rice lover,

Calm down there. Nobody is going to make you give up anything you don’t want to.

After giving up all grains for sixty days (doing Whole30 twice, back to back), I’ve found that rice is one of the culprits that gives me heartburn and discomfort. I’m not too tempted to eat it.

But what if you’re okay with rice? What if it’s an integral part of your life? How to make it more nutritionally acceptable for a Real Food lifestyle? How to avoid the glucose spike that follows from eating a food that is, effectively, pure sugar?

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Health advocate Ashley Grosch, leader of national health education group The Oil Tribe, suggests adding a tablespoon of coconut oil to every one cup of rice you cook. This converts digestible starches into indigestible (resistant) starches, so the rice doesn’t metabolize as glucose (unused glucose is what builds fat in our bodies!). Resistant starches are also prebiotic and complimentary to probiotic foods, as they feed the beneficial bacteria that inhabit healthy guts. Pair a bowl of prebiotic rice with some probiotic kimchi, and suddenly you realize why traditional meal plans have made sense for generations of humanity.

Keep your blood glucose from spiking after a starchy meal – rice, white potato – simply by adding fat – coconut oil, ghee, butter – to the starch!  Who wants to eat a potato without butter, anyway? Not me.

Add even more nutrients to your rice (or quinoa, or millet, or whatever else you’re cooking) by cooking it in nutrient dense bone broth, or vegetable broth if you don’t eat meat.

Read more sciencey facts here at Perfect Health Diet, and do some of your own research! Or just take my word for it, and use the following recipe when you prepare rice (which, for the record, shouldn’t be at EVERY meal. I mean, our pancreas can only take so much).

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Print Rice Preparation instructions

Real Food Rice Preparation

This is a recipe for white jasmine rice. For brown rice, increase liquid to 2 cups, and cooking time to 30 – 40 minutes at a low temperature. For maximum benefit, serve this prebiotic, resistant starch with a probiotic food such as kimchi or kraut.

1-1/2 cups bone broth or vegetable broth
1 cup dry white jasmine rice
1 tablespoon coconut oil, ghee or butter

Rinse rice briefly and add to a cooking pot. Add broth and coconut oil. Cover pot, bring to a boil and shut off heat. Let rice sit for 15 – 20 minutes; remove lid and fluff rice deliciously to serve.

Print Rice Preparation instructions

Do you plan to keep eating rice? Does this make you feel more confident about including it in your meals? Leave a comment and let me know!

Andrea

Beauty Care: Face Wash, Sleepy Rollers, and Tummy Tuck!

(Tummy tuck? What? Go on, please!)

Dear adorable,

The husband and I came home to Seattle for a brief visit, and I kicked off the #seattleoiltribe happenings with a huge beauty make & take! We made four different items, using the Base lotion in some of them, and we did a lot of Zyto scans. And mostly, we visited, we laughed hysterically until we snorted (true story!) and we loved being with friends we hadn’t seen for months and years!!!

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I flew out to Seattle with the two babies, and Gary followed a few days later. I met many wonderful friends on the flight from Virginia to Washington state, and they made my trip a peaceful and painless experience.

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When I was planning my trip, I ordered essential oils, containers and ingredients for the make & take items from Virginia, and had them shipped straight to my mom’s house in Seattle. This was perfect! The first event in Seattle was on a Saturday.

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We opened the doors early for Zyto scans and assessments. Using galvanic skin response, the same technology as a polygraph test, the hand scan takes about three minutes and measures 74 biomarkers in your body, seeing what is out of range. This tool does not diagnose or treat disease. Neither do I!

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Before class began, we made a huge batch of the Base lotion. I mean, it was a bathtub-size bowl that my mom uses to make chocolate chip cookies at Christmastime. I used over seven pounds of shea butter in one sitting – and we blew through virtually the entire monstrous bowl of lotion over the course of the class. It was INSANE! I loved every minute of it!!

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I live-streamed the event on Periscope (find me there, Andrea Huehnerhoff. You can watch my classes live, too!).

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We made individual Zyto rollers for everyone, based on their Zyto scans – this is one of my favorite things to do. Immediate solutions!!

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We made Sleepy Time Rollers for rolling on your feet just before bed; Silky Foaming Face Wash for refreshing your skin.

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And the insanely popular Tummy Tuck Lotion for those areas of skin that yearn to be tight again. We ran out of THIS before class even ended, and I’m making more already!

And there are so many other things we can make!

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So many oils! I went a little crazy hehehaha

Download all five recipes here
(Sleepy Roller, The Base, Tummy Tuck)

Tummy Tuck Lotion
I use this as a part of my post-partum tummy tightening protocol! 

2 ounces base lotion
5 drops Geranium
5 drops Lavender
5 drops Grapefruit
5 drops Elemi
Where to buy containers, ingredients, and effective essential oils

Place base lotion in a 2-ounce container.
Add essential oils and gently combine using a chopstick or another small implement.
Keep tightly sealed in a cool place out of direct sunlight.

Download all five recipes here

I look forward to seeing you at one of our events … online, or in person – in Seattle, or in Virginia – or anywhere else in the world!!!!!

Blessings,

Andrea

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Mom’s Internationally-Acclaimed Banana Bread: more famous than any other

Dear hungries,

This morning I had a mountain of black bananas, which the husband has been eyeing hopefully while whispering banana bread under his breath, hoping it sinks into my subconscious. I pulled out my splattered and ragged banana bread recipe, passed down from my mom, given to her by a college friend’s mom and used until well-worn before any of us precious little angels were born.

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This banana bread is simple, and classic.

It has everything a purist loaf of banana bread needs – sweet, overripe bananas, no additional mix-ins. A moist and tender crumb, and a sweet, slightly sticky top that cracks and splits right down the middle, in tender perfection. Cut a slice and melt on some butter – the world stops turning as you drift into a heavenly banana dream. And naturally, when stirring up the batter you can add all the walnuts and chocolate chips you like – a little banana bread blasphemy is always wickedly fun.

This recipe has been emailed, copied, and written down so many times by so many people, my mom spends half her time on the computer sending it out. It’s about time it was posted online for all of you to enjoy!!

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Download the Best Banana Bread recipe here

Best Banana Bread

You can add chocolate chips, walnuts, dried fruit or even coconut flakes to mix up the flavors and textures!  I tend to go the purist route and not mix in anything – I always plan to do it next time! 

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine in bowl:
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Blend in:
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder

Add:
½ cup Canola oil

Mix well, pour into greased pan.  Bake 45-60 minutes. Serve hot, with butter!

Banana Muffins: spray paper liners in a muffin tin. Scoop in ¼ to 1/3 cup batter in each cup; makes 12.
Mini Loaf Pans: spray mini loaf pans before using; makes three.
Hawaiian French Toast: use slices of banana loaf instead of regular bread when preparing French toast.
Elvis Style Hawaiian French Toast: spread two slices of banana bread with peanut butter; spread one slice with jam, and make a sandwich. Dip into egg and milk for French toast, and cook as French toast.

Alternative Ingredients
Replace 1 cup sugar with ½ cup honey
Replace Canola oil with melted coconut oil

Download the Best Banana Bread recipe here

 Enjoy your banana bread, and please share with me your ideas for mix-ins!

Mrs H

UnGranola Porridge: grain-free, dairy-free, Whole30 kind of

Dear -free advocates and hungry breakfasters,

While I like to think we eat a clean, real-food diet, doing the Whole30 challenge has revealed to me where I am lacking in that area – highlighting bad habits I’ve developed, areas I’ve gotten lazy. And while I love everything on the Whole30, sometimes I just want to eat a breakfast that isn’t made out of eggs!

Well hello, UnGranola.

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Whole30, in short, means no dairy, no grains, no pseudo-grains like quinoa seeds or buckwheat, no sugars including maple syrup or honey or stevia except for fruit sugars, no legumes (peanuts, beans, soy), and no psychologically-enhanced grain-free Paleo baked indulgences like coconut flour pancakes and muffins. What I do eat are a lot of eggs, mountains of green vegetables, free-range and grass-fed meat from local farmers, fruits, nuts … potatoes, root vegetables, seaweed, seafood, coffee, Choffy, tea and lots of other good stuff. It takes creativity and energy to put together meals without dropping back into habits that are long-established, and there is basically Nothing At All in the grocery store that is pre-made that fulfills the Whole30 requirements, so if one is tired and doesn’t feel like cooking but is also hungry, one is out of luck. (You’d be surprised how much stuff has pea protein in it, am I right?)

Benefits for this pregnant lady on Whole30 (under midwife supervision) include: on Day 23 today, this is the longest stretch I’ve gone without throwing up since I got pregnant. I love me some good food, but I hate seeing it twice! As of about Day 5, my life-interruptingly uncomfortable hiccups and overwhelming chest-pressure ceased entirely, enabling me to do things like breathe during the day, and sleep laying down, instead of propped up over four hundred pillows. And my legs – it’s like the excess baby weight is already trimming itself down despite the fact that I am consuming more calories now than I ever did before, because my clothes fit more easily (but the belly still grows!).

So back to eating a breakfast with no eggs. We eat a lot of fried, scrambled, poached, and boiled eggs in general, because we like them. Yet sometimes I just want something else in the morning, like a hot bowl of porridge with fruit on top. I don’t know if this strays in to “non-Whole30 approved psychological destruction” of the program, but at any rate it keeps me happy on the program and I still feel refreshed, nutritionally fulfilled, and experience none of the negative side effects that my previous (carbohydrate-enhanced) meals were apparently giving me.

I also wanted something Relatively Fast – I don’t always feel like/want to spend forty hours in the kitchen making a meal, so I wanted to make a mixture that could be chucked on the stove, oatmeal-style, and cooked up in just a few minutes. I wanted something the little kids would eat. I wanted something with nutrition, variety, flavor and spices. I wanted something that goes in a bowl and I eat, earthy peasant-style, with a too-large spoon. This satisfies all the requirements, and still meets the standard of no grain, dairy, legumes blah blah.

Enter UnGranola.

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Peaches ‘n cream, anyone?

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This porridge fulfills the desire for texture, warmth, a little sweetness if you desire (sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t). And while I like the popular Paleo nut-butter porridges and make those from time to time, they ultimately are something I can only have few and far between because the very nutty smoothness of them gets underwhelming after a while. Download the recipe PDF for UnGranola Porridge at the bottom of this post!

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The ingredients can vary widely based on your taste, or what you have available in your pantry. Spices can be mixed up to suit your personal preference, too – I love using cinnamon, cloves, fresh nutmeg and a little vanilla powder – because on Whole30 you can’t use vanilla extract, there are too many illegal ingredients! Plus, using powder keeps my mixture nice and dry.  I order it from Beanilla and use it for all sorts of things in the kitchen!

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Everything goes in the blender or food processor to mix – you have to be careful that you don’t churn it into a paste-like nut butter, though! I think a food processor is the best option, but I don’t have one so the Vitamix is my go-to. The new, wide-based Vitamix would be perfect for this! Sometimes I use the dry cup, but it doesn’t make much difference really.

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Once everything is ground together, as coarse or as fine as you prefer, you have a handy mix to keep in the fridge! I keep it refrigerated because I don’t want the nut oils to go rancid – our house gets pretty warm in the spring and summer. A dark, cool pantry might be just fine, but the fridge is a nice, safe bet.

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To prepare your delicious morning bowl of UnGranola, you take a scoop of the mixture and add a liquid to it. This can be whatever you like! Coconut cream and water, coconut milk, fresh almond milk, goat milk or cow’s milk if you drink dairy.

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The almond milk, if you’re on Whole30, will probably be homemade, because there will be carageenan and other 30-illegal ingredients in most packaged almond milk.

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Then, you have the option of adding a sweetener if you choose! For a banana-blend UnGranola, mash in a sliced fresh banana, or slice in a frozen one and let it cook down while you stir and mash. The little kids seem to particularly like this version, and it makes a very pleasingly thick, gently-sweet porridge.

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For Blueberries ‘n Cream, you can add blueberries or use them instead of bananas. Add them fresh or frozen close to the end of cooking, and gently stir in! It’s a good thing summer is coming because I’m almost out of frozen blueberries – we pick at least a hundred pounds a year and wash, freeze on pans and then store in gallon bags. After serving the bowls, I like to add a little extra spice to the top – some cinnamon and fresh nutmeg will enhance these berries!

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For Peaches ‘n Cream, I popped open a jar of peaches from our summer harvest. You could use fresh or frozen peaches, too! I mashed them in with a fork while the mixture was cooking.

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Serve the granola with more fruit, spices and milk if you like. A swirl of jam or jelly, some dried fruit, or a rich dollop of butter, ghee or coconut cream. The sky is the limit!

Download the recipe PDF here! 

UnGranola Porridge

Measurements will vary; these are all approximate! You can increase one ingredient in favor of another, if you prefer. A nut-free version is distinctly smaller but still possible. 

UnGranola Mix
Makes approximately 3 – 4 cups of mix, or 6 – 8 servings (1/2 cup dry mix per serving)
1 cup raw walnuts
1 cup raw, dried pumpkin seeds (or other gourd)
1 cup flaked or shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup raw pecans
3/4 cup shelled, raw sunflower seeds
1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 – 1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 – 1/2 cup hempseed
1/4 – 1/2 cup chia seed
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
Vanilla powder to taste (optional)
Ground cinnamon and cloves to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg
Ground pink Himlayan salt

Liquids:
Coconut cream and water, coconut milk, almond milk or another nut milk, a dairy milk if you prefer

Sweeteners (optional): 
1 banana or another fruit, or maple syrup, honey, stevia or another sweetener of your choice

Making the mix
Pour all of the UnGranola Mix ingredients into a blender or food processor. If using the Vitamix, turn to speed 8 and stop every 30 seconds to scrape container with spatula; press down gently with the tamper while mixing, being careful not to over-blend into a paste.

Scrape mix into a glass container for storage; cap and store in the refrigerator.

To serve UnGranola Porridge: 
Scoop 1/2 cup of mix and place in a small saucepan. Add up to 3/4 cup of the liquid of your choice, more if you like your porridge thinner. Stir briskly with a fork over medium heat, whisking in a banana if you choose and mashing it fully or choosing another variation or sweetener. Heat for about ten minutes, stirring frequently, or until mixture is hot and thick to your liking. Serve with additional fruit, spices or milk if desired.

Tips: If there are any coarse pieces of pumpkin seed or coconut, longer cooking will soften them. If you made your porridge too thin, whisk in a little coconut flour to bulk it up.

Variations: 
Blueberries ‘n Cream: Stir in fresh or frozen blueberries towards the end of cooking. Grate fresh nutmeg on top before serving.

Peaches ‘n Cream: Stir in fresh, canned or frozen peaches, dicing or mashing in to your preference. Sprinkle with cinnamon and pour in cream to serve.

Pumpkin Spice: Add allspice to the spice mixture, and increase the amounts.

Gingerbread Wonderland: Add ground ginger and additional nutmeg to the pumpkin spice version; serve with hot applesauce.

PB&J: Swirl in a dollop of peanut butter, almond butter or another nut butter, and add a spoonful of jam or jelly just before serving.

Hot Butter: Top with a slab of butter or ghee, and a sprinkle of salt.

Download the recipe PDF here!

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I hope you’ll keep me posted on any fun variations you and your family come up with – I am also always on the lookout for new and interesting ingredients to throw in the mix, so let me know what you find!!

Blessings,

Mrs H

See it first on Instagram
Face to face on the book

Homemade Refried Beans (and pressure canning them!)

Dear refritos,

It must have been at least five years ago when my friend, foodmaster and chicken boss Miz Carmen and I spent a rainy, wind-lashed day cooking a monster batch of beans a la charra, a recipe gleaned from a now-out-of-print cookbook she owns from a now-out-of-business Mexican restaurant. She photocopied the page for me, because those beans became an instant hit at our house! She froze most of hers, and I pressure-canned mine. A freshly opened jar of these delicious beans has saved many a dinner for me, between multiple moves (military and otherwise!), and the arrival of our first child!

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I’m anticipating baby #2, so it seems like a good time to stock up on canned soups and beans in the home pantry – aka fast, real food. Canning beans at home is not only a great way to save money – dried beans cost significantly less than canned ones, even when they’re on sale! – but it saves on waste, too. The jars are reusable (and the lids, if you use these), so you can refill them with beans again and again. You don’t have to agitate about excessive BPA or BPS in metal cans, or try to navigate the harrowing lists of nasty ingredients most canned recipes have.

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Leave the bacon out if you’re opting for a vegetarian version!

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If you’ve never canned beans, Jill over at The Prairie Homestead has a gorgeous beginning tutorial, as well as a guide for pressure canning! You cannot, ever, ever can beans in a water-bath canner, ever, ever, no matter what you heard from your neighbor or read on Snopes. You can read this fact in any of the Ball canning books, any pressure-canning books, or take my word for it – I’m an internationally certified acidified foods processor, and took a beastly course on microorganisms in the jar to get there. Beans are very low-acid, and in order to kill the microorganisms that can live in a low-acid environment the contents must be heated to far beyond the boiling point, and only a pressure canner can do that.

I did not create this recipe – I’ve just loved it for many years! The cookbook is no longer in print sadly, and the restaurant that inspired it is no longer operational. In our home, we’ve created a number of variations, as is irresistible to do with beans as delicious and simple as these! Be sure to use fresh, high-quality spices for a truly outstanding experience – I obtain mine from MarketSpice or Penzeys, and grind the cumin seeds fresh. The quality of your ingredients will make a difference in the finished product!

Download recipe PDF (and bonus Frijoles Refritos recipe!)

Beans a la Charra

The original recipe comes from a cookbook published by a now-defunct Mexican restaurant in the Seattle area. I can’t find any copies of the book now, and all I have left are photocopies provided kindly by my friend at Domestic Endeavors! Also called “cowboy beans” for their rough-n-tender campfire feel, these beans make the perfect addition to any meal. Pour a jar over a pan of organic, salted chips, and scatter with shredded cheese before popping in the oven to warm. Serve in burritos, enchiladas, alongside rice, or add to a pan of cooked, sliced potatoes to make “cowboy potatoes”, one of my favorites growing up. Puree the entire mixture to serve as soup (do not puree before canning)! All pressure canning is incurred at your own risk. Be sure to follow safety procedures carefully.

3 cups dried pinto beans
3 quarts water
6 slices (about 8 ounces) uncooked bacon, coarsely chopped
½ cup diced onion
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ jalapeno, stemmed, seeded, chopped (some like it hot: keep the seeds, or add more jalapeno!)
1 tablespoon chile powder or 2 tablespoons fresh taco seasoning
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon salt

In a stockpot, soak the beans overnight in the water (to cover), optionally adding a tablespoon or two of whey, lemon juice or vinegar to aid in later digestion of the beans. The next day, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the chile powder and cumin and cook for 1 minute more. Add 1 cup of the soaking water from the beans while stirring and scraping the bottom of the skillet to loosen all the brown bits adhered to the pan. Add the beans and remaining water, and bring to a rapid boil. Skim foam; decrease the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 1-1/2 hour to 2 hours, or until the beans are soft. If you are planning to can them, you can undercook the beans until they are still a little crunchy; they’ll cook the rest of the way in the pressure canner. If you cook them fully, some the beans will disintegrate somewhat which is delicious and perfectly heavenly in its own right. When the beans are cooked through, add the salt, and cook 1 to 2 more minutes.

Pressure canning: For sea level, process pints at 10 pounds pressure, for 75 minutes. Adjust pressure for altitude. Remove finished jars and let cool, undisturbed. DO NOT press on lids yet. 12 – 24 hours after canning, remove rings and check seals. If any lids pop or shift, remove to refrigeration and use within 2 days. Wash all jars in warm, soapy water to remove residue from the canner.

If serving: Keep warm until ready to serve, or cool, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Download recipe PDF (and bonus recipe!)

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The jars will have residue from the beans on them – be sure to let them sit, undisturbed, overnight or for 24 hours before checking seals! Wash all jars and rings thoroughly in warm, soapy water, and leave the rings off. Rings breed potential mold if any moisture or food particles linger, and we don’t want that! Plus, if you enter a jar in the county fair, it will be automatically disqualified if there is still a ring on it, and where would your blue ribbon be then?

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Pressure-canning tip

Waiting for the pressure to dissipate and the pressure-valve to drop can be a long, boring wait, especially when you’re anxious to re-load the canner with a new batch of jars!

When the canner is about to finish the designated time for canning … Fill a large container or sink with cold water (ice is not necessary). After shutting off the heat and letting the pressure drop to about five pounds (this takes just a few minutes), carefully remove the canner and set in the cold-water bath. It’ll try to float, so keep a hand on it! In a very few minutes, the pressure will drop completely and the pressure-valve will pop down. You can then remove the lid and extract your jars, setting them aside to cool overnight. I learned this handy trick from somebody who saw it on America’s Test Kitchen – if you know the original episode, let me know!

Recommended Tools

23-Quart Pressure Canner
This is the pressure canner I recommend – Presto makes a wonderful, fail-safe product! No mistakes, mishaps or misfires with this canner. I own three of them, and with their heavy, reinforced bottom I use them without the lid for everything from cooking down huge batches of ketchup and applesauce to water-bath canning. You can double-stack pints for canning and pressure canning, they are that deep! Replacement parts can be ordered on Amazon and from Presto’s website. Their customer service has always been friendly and prompt! Note that a small pressure cooker WILL NOT work for pressure canning, EVEN if it comes with a small canning rack!! A pressure cooker is NOT made for canning, and is too small to maintain even heat throughout the substrate (contents of the jar), thus proving UNSAFE for home pressure canning. USE ONLY A DESIGNATED PRESSURE CANNER! 

Oakton EcoTestr pH 2 Waterproof pH Tester, 0.0 to 14.0 pH Range
This is not necessary for pressure canning – but it’s great if you’re food-nerdy, or if you want to can tomatoes which may or may not be acidic enough for waterbath. If you want to test the acidity of, say, a batch of tomatoes, pH test strips are not recommended – there is too much margin for error! This bench tester was recommended to me by a lab technician as one of the best handheld options, unless you want to jump up to the $500 versions! When testing the acidity of something chunky, like tomato sauce or a finished jar of pickles, note that you must blend the contents thoroughly and test a sample of the blended contents. So, if you are planning to process whole tomatoes and you want to check the acidity first, you must blend a representative sample of the tomatoes for testing. Follow the instructions on the tester carefully, and plan ahead – calibrating base for your first use can take time!

General Hydroponics Ph 7.0 Calibration Solution – 8 Ounces, 1 bottle
You’ll also need some standard reference solution. This one will do the trick!

Update – IMPORTANT!!!!

Chevys Fresh Mex Cookbook
Miz Carmen has found The Cookbook on Amazon!! It’s only twelve buckeroos and full of deliciousness. I need MY OWN COPY now!!!!!!!

See more of my recommended products in my Amazon aStorewe could talk cookbooks ALL DAY!!!!

Happily canning and eating,

Mrs H

Turkey Leftovers: Moo Shoo Wraps, Burritos and Delicious

Dear Thanksgivingers,

I actually buy extra turkey in advance, just so I can have more “leftovers” to make this. I was filling deviled eggs and whipping meringue for Thanksgiving dinner, and the wraps I would need for both of these recipes were already sitting on the pantry shelf, waiting for Their Day.

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Thanksgiving is as good a time as any to post heartwarming Norman Rockwell paintings.

 

Oh, these are good, very, very good. They drip juice, they crunch, they fill you up, and everybody wants more! For the Moo Shoo wraps, you can use cabbage or bok choy, whichever you have – both are available on our farm during this season, so I toss in a miscellaneous mixture of the two.

A big wok is best for making this, but you can also make it in a regular pan if you wish! If you are a vegetarian and you use something other than the usual turkey as your main, I’d be curious to know if you can throw a meatless twist on this! If you do, hook us up with a recipe link in the comments (I’m looking at you, Mysterious Mrs. S!).

Turkey Chase

This turkey is giving ’em a run for their money!

 

I originally shared this recipe back in 2011 on the old blogstead; I’d already been making it for several years by this time, and we still love it today. Love it so much, in fact, that it gets gobbled up (like that pun?) before I ever get any pictures – I’ll snap some this round, and add them to the post for you photophiles. And for your photo files.

Photo Credit: The Kitchn

Photo Credit: The Kitchn

 

Note: This is the oil we use and which I recommend to anyone looking for coconut oil – ethically sourced, traditionally prepared, and organic, the expeller-pressed oil has no coconut flavor or aroma and I use it for everything from frying chicken to scrambling eggs to pouring into my smoothies!

 

Moo Shoo Turkey Wraps

Download the Moo Shoo Turkey Wrap & Turkey Burrito Recipes

Obviously, there is lots of wiggle room in this recipe.  Add some toasted sesame seeds if you like; I love to serve these with homemade (or storebought) sweet plum sauce!  To really go with the Asian theme or to avoid extra gluten you could use rice wraps, like spring roll wrappers, instead of tortillas.  If you like, you could use a bagged shredded coleslaw mix instead of a cabbage.  

1 tablespoon olive oil, coconut oil or rice brain oil
1 additional teaspoon olive oil, or any of the above options
10 – 16 ounces sliced mushrooms
4 green onions, sliced
1 small knob peeled, grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
16 – 20 ounces shredded fresh cabbage or bok choy (one small cabbage, or less than half large cabbage)
1/3 cup water
2 cups shredded leftover cooked turkey (you could use chicken or pork, if you preferred)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons (plus extra for serving) hoisin sauce (sometimes I use home-canned plum sauce instead)
8 tortillas, warmed

In a skillet or wok, heat one tablespoon oil on medium-high until hot.  Add mushrooms and saute 6 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned.  Remove to a plate.
In the skillet, heat one teaspoon olive oil on medium-high.  Stir in green onions (reserve a small portion if you want to sprinkle some fresh on the wraps), ginger, crushed red pepper, and garlic.  Add shredded cabbage and cook 2 minutes or until cabbage begins to soften, stirring constantly.  Add water and cook 1 to 2 minutes or until water evaporates.  Cabbage should be tender-crisp, not mushy; stir frequently.  Stir in turkey, soy sauce, 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce, and cooked mushrooms; cook an additional 3 minutes or until turkey is hot, stirring constantly.
Spread tortillas with hoisin sauce; top with turkey filling, extra green onions if you like, roll up and enjoy!  These are very juicy.  These are very delicious. These are amazing.

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They aren’t always so agreeable to peeling potatoes, but sometimes you can trick ’em into it

 

Is it okay if I post two turkey recipes? Because this one is so insanely, crazy good that I can’t leave it out. I know you’ll go nuts for this one, too, because my entire family did! 

Turkey and Bean Burrito 

Download the Moo Shoo Turkey Wrap & Turkey Burrito Recipes

If you so desire, drizzle into your burritos a little Louisiana Hot Sauce, some homemade spicy ketchup, or some enchilada sauce! We crazy love this recipe, and you can sneak a little gravy in there if you like, too …   See the original post from 2011 here.

1 tablespoon olive oil or any of the above options
1 yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 pint diced tomatoes or you can purchase a can of tomatoes with diced chiles in it, such as Rotel tomatoes, and ignore the next ingredient
1 – 2 tablespoons chopped chiles or pickled jalapenos
2 tablespoons lime juice or the juice from one small lime
4 cups shredded cooked turkey (or chicken, or pork, or julienned tofu!)
1 pint pinto beans, fresh-cooked or canned, rinsed
6 tortillas, warmed
8 ounces shredded Monterey, pepper Jack, or cheddar cheese
2 cups shredded green cabbage or bok choy (one small cabbage, or less than half large cabbage)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and saute, stirring, until softened, about 2 minutes.  Stir in garlic, cumin and chile powder and cook for 30 seconds or until the spices release a fragrant scent.  Add tomatoes and lime juice; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until onions are very tender, about 20 minutes.  Stir in turkey and cooked beans and continue cooking until the mixture is heated through, approximately five minutes.  Fill tortillas with the turkey and bean mixture; top with cheese and shredded cabbage, roll, and enjoy!

What do you do with your leftover turkey? Please tell me – I love turkey, I love it all manner of delicious ways!!

 

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She loves turkey, too.

Don’t forget to Download the Moo Shoo Turkey Wrap & Turkey Burrito Recipes for your recipe files!

Gobbling,

Mrs H
Our turkeys are on Facebook
Instagram is clearly for the birds!

 

Salted Rosemary Croccantini: better than expensive gourmet brands, even

Dear crackling, cackling, crackering,

It’s that time of week again when we get to zip back in time and steal a post from the old crumbling blogstead! I originally came up with this recipe back in December 2012, when I wanted some fresh, homemade crackers. When driving from Seattle to Virginia, about seven or eight months pregnant and anxious to see my husband again after he’d been moved by the Navy, I was given a package of sort of boring-looking crackers and a bag of sliced cheese. I didn’t even think the crackers looked very good but once I started eating them, I couldn’t stop! Flakes of salt, the herby aroma of rosemary, and the crackle of crispy … I was hooked. You will be, too.

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I love croccantini crackers.  Croccante is the Italian word for crispy or crunchy; –tini is a pluralized diminutive attached to the word, hence our cute little croccantini (if any Italian speakers know more on this, let me know, I have a very limited vocabulary!).

Last year, when I left for my Long Haul to Chicago, my cousin bequeathed upon me a large and full box of flat, salted, rosemary-infused-and-topped, fragrant crackers.  I wasn’t too excited at first (“Oh good, a vehicle for my cheese”) but then I ate one and … well, then I ate the rest.

They were good.  Really good.

I semi-forgot about them for a while, wishing now and again I could find them but not recalling the name of the brand.  “I need to ask her where she got them,” I resolved every time I thought of them.  I didn’t know they were a Thing, popular in Italy with cheese for a snack, and produced by more than one manufacturer, until I stumbled my eyes across them in Trader Joe’s.

Welcome to my cart, little box of crackers.

I took them home and quickly realized that in order to feasibly enjoy them in the quantity and frequency I desired, I would have to find a more fiscally responsible way to get them to my plate.  And following my rule of thumb for food – “If I can buy it, I can make it,” – I headed straight to the kitchen.

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I wanted the crackers to be whole wheat, or at least mostly so.  If not for the fact that unbleached flour is fairly pointless as far as nutrition goes, then for the fact that whole wheat has a more robust depth of flavor, somewhat nuttier and more hearty than white.

I strapped the baby to my back and got to work.  And let me tell you, it was worth the twenty to thirty minutes of experiential toil: these crackers are far and away better than the packaged version (why are we not shocked? Why?).  They taste better, have a meatier crunch, the salt and rosemary flavoring is controlled by me (more, more, more!!!), and they look a whole darn lot better, too.

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My cracker – hearty, flavorful, well-seasoned

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The store cracker – sparsely seasoned, pasty texture when chewing, snaps like a piece of brittle glass and explodes across the room, but still so good it inspired me to make my own. Now, imagine how much deliciousness there must be in the homemade version!!

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You can cut them into whatever size or shape you like.  Just don’t re-roll the dough – cook the odd pointy scraps leftover from any fancy cutting you do, and enjoy them in their fun shapes.

 It’s simple: Mix the dry ingredients by hand, in the Vitamix cup with dry blade, or in a food processor …

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Add the wet ingredients.

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Pulse into a loose ball of dough.

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Dump said ball of dough onto a barely dusted work surface.

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Mold gently by hand into a ball of firm, soft dough.

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Cut the dough into workable sizes.  Halved or quartered will be fine.

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Roll the first half or quarter out thin, thin, thin.  This is a quarter of the dough, rolled out.  Brush with olive oil.

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Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and dried rosemary; I rolled over it with the rolling pin to ensure the seasonings stuck in, or you can use your hand.

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Cut into the desired shape: use a pizza cutter, decorate with a dough roller docker if you wish, use cookie cutters, biscuit cutters, a knife, a glass, a bowl … or bake whole, and break afterwards.

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Just ten minutes at 450 F will do it.  Check at the halfway point to make sure you aren’t burning it!  Enjoy with cheese, salami, spread, hummus, baba ghanoush, meats, pico de gallo …

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Salted Rosemary Croccantini

Download the Salted Rosemary Croccantini recipe here

These are easy to make.  No particular skills needed, not even very much time – I made them between chores on a busy afternoon, on a whim, with a baby dangling from the carrier on my back.  Now, imagine how much easier it must be without the baby! I weighed my flour, as you will see following, because I wanted to have precise measurements.  Scooping, fluffing, or scraping flour out of the container is just not accurate enough, although it can get you a good approximation.  

1 cup (156 g) whole wheat or white whole wheat
3/4 cup (106.5 g) bread flour (I used King Arthur white bread flour)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 generous tablespoon chopped rosemary (see below), more or less depending on your preference
1/2 cup filtered water
1/3 cup olive oil
Extra olive oil for brushing
Sea salt, additional dried rosemary, and other optional herbs for topping

Heat oven to 450.  Adjust rack to the middle; if you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven.  If not, put a large cookie sheet in the oven.
Using a Vitamix or food processor: Add dry ingredients and pulse to mix; pour oil and water into the well and pulse from low to hi, repeatedly, until a scrappy, loose ball of dough forms.  It should only take a few revolutions.
By hand: Using your hands, a pastry or dough cutter or two forks, blend the dough until a scrappy, loose ball of dough forms.
Both methods:  Dump the dough onto a lightly dusted work surface.  Gather and gently work it into a ball of dough.  Using a knife, cut into halves or quarters (quarters are easy to work with).
On unfloured, ungreased parchment paper, roll the dough out until it is thin, thin, as thin as you can make it.  Then, a little thinner.  Brush with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and rosemary.  If you like, add other herbs such as thyme, basil, or flavors such as granulated garlic.
Pick up the parchment paper and place it in the heated oven on your stone or cookie sheet.  Bake for ten minutes in the heated oven, checking at the halfway point and near the end to ensure it isn’t burning.
Remove when it is browning at the edges and looks dry and croccante!

Note: Do not use a Silpat/silicone baking mat.  The heat is too near the maximum temperatures for the silicone (480 is where they top out), especially if you are using a baking stone.  You will end up with a smoking kitchen and crackers that taste oddly like plastic.  How do I know?  I tried.  Thank me later!

Chopped or Powdered Rosemary

Download the Chopped or Powdered Rosemary Recipe here

I used dried rosemary from our garden for this.  The Krups Electric Spice and Coffee Grinder is my preferred weapon of choice: it lasts notoriously long (years, years, decades), is loud but not deafening, is pretty cheaply priced and best of all does the job required of it with speed and efficiency.  

Strip leaves from the woody stems.

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Using a coffee or spice grinder, pulse rosemary 4 times for 1 second to chop coarsely.

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To grind into a powder, pulse for about four or five seconds several times, until the fineness you desire is achieved.

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Our family of rosemary, left to right: Whole, coarsely chopped, powdered.

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Download the Salted Rosemary Croccantini recipe here

Download the Chopped or Powdered Rosemary Recipe here

Crisply crunching,

Mrs H
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Kenyan-Style Chai Masala: how to welcome an honored guest

Welcome to my first instructional cooking video!  
Advice and pro tips? Leave me your thoughts in the comments below! 

Hodi hodi marafiki zangu, hello dear friends!

I am blessed to have two beautiful Kenyan women as neighbors, one across the street and another down the road. We all share children, dinners, stories with each other and combine our cultures and tribal knowledge. My African sisters taught me that every welcoming and gracious home in Kenya has a pot of hot chai masala on the stove, ready to serve an honored guest at the drop of a Masai headdress. I posted about this hospitable tradition on my Instagram account and it got a lot of feedback there and on Facebook – it’s hard to say what my muzungu friends were more excited about: the recipe for chai masala, or the thought of dropping in on friends, unexpected!

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There are 1,001 ways to make chai masala, and they are all right. There are millions of different spice blends, milks and creams and bases, and every one is unique and delicious!

Kenyan-Style Chai Masala

Watch the instructional video, and read and download the recipe below!

Download recipe PDF here

Chai spices*
Loose or bagged black tea, about 3 teaspoons per half-gallon
Milk**, water, cream or a combination of any of these
Honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, sucanat or another sweetener to taste

The goal is to heat the liquid, and get the tea and spices to soak in this liquid for about ten minutes, and sweeten the tea. You can do this many different ways.

Method 1: Fill the pot with liquid. Sprinkle in tea and spices – you’ll find that preferences vary, but I like a few teaspoons’ amount of each.  Turn to medium heat and slowly warm for about ten to fifteen minutes, to just below simmering. Strain out spices and tea leaves; add sweetener and whisk briskly. Serve hot or cold!

Method 2: Fill the pot with liquid. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat; sprinkle in spices and tea and let steep for ten minutes. Pour through a strainer; add sweetener, stirring to dissolve. Serve to a lucky guest!

A note on straining: You can strain through a fine mesh sieve, or layer cheesecloth in it to really get out the tiny grit. I find I prefer it to be very finely strained!

*A note on chai spices: I love the Kenyan blend that my sisters bring back from Africa, but you can also find beautiful blends from India, other countries and also in the US. I’ve found some wonderfully fresh and fragrant blends from the high-quality spice purveyor www.marketspice.com in my native Seattle. Yes, you can order online! The Spicy Seattle Chai is outstanding. Look for blends that are just pure spices, no added flavorings, sugars, or other non-essential ingredients. Some spice blends are ground very fine; others are coarse or may have whole coriander, cloves et cetera. Explore with abandon!  Invent your own!

**A note on milk: You can use just milk. Just water. A mixture; almond milk, coconut milk, goat’s milk. I use raw cow’s milk most of the time, and mix it with up to 50% water. It depends on what’s available! Slightly sour milk is perfect.

Download recipe PDF here

How do you welcome guests into your home?  Do you enjoy unexpected drop-ins?

Mrs H
Killin time on Instagram – it’s a slow death
Fresh faces on Facebook. Are you a bookie, too?

As seen on The Prairie Homestead Round-Up