Best Chocolate Cake

So moist! So chocolatey! So simple to make!

Preheat oven to 320F (160C)

1/2 C cocoa powder
1/2 C coconut flour (flour not flake)
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon (I use Ceylon Cinnamon from Penzeys. Worth. It.)
pinch of sea salt

6 eggs
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
1/2 light cooking oil (I like rice bran oil)
1/2 C milk or coconut milk
1 t vanilla

In a mixing bowl add cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt and combine.

Add eggs, honey, vanilla, milk, & oil, whisk until smooth and combined.

Oil a 8" or 9" round cake pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper or paper bag and place in the bottom of the pan, oil that too.
Bake 45 minutes or until wooden skewer comes out clean. Let cool.

Recipe adapted from The Healthy Chef

Doesn't need frosting or even a fork, but if you want to dress it up, try Rich Chocolate Frosting

Salad Dressings

Almost all commercial salad dressings have added sugar. Luckily, it's quick and easy to make your own! Here are my 3 favorites. Not so much a recipe as guidelines. Play with amounts and ingredients and make what you like best.

Creamy Parmesan & Balsamic Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette
Delicious in 2 minutes

1/3 C vinegar that you like the taste of. My favs are balsamic or pomegranate
2/3 C olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 t fresh or dried herb that you like - I like basil or tarragon. Mince or shred fresh herbs.
salt and pepper to taste

Put ingredients in a mason jar with a lid and shake. Taste and adjust seasonings.

I leave this on the counter (up to a week) because the oil will solidify in the fridge. Shake before use!


Creamy Parmesan
Delicious in 5 minutes

1/3 C mayonnaise
2/3 C plain yoghurt (if using Greek yoghurt, add 1/4 C milk or dressing is too thick)
1 T lemon or lime juice (juice of 1/2 lemon or 1 lime)
1 C parmesan cheese, finely grated (can substitute other hard cheeses)
2 t white wine or rice vinegar
2 t dijon mustard
1 t soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce (has added sugar so I used GF soy sauce)
3 t freshly ground peppercorn
salt to taste (cheese is salty so you don't need much)

optional - red pepper flakes or sauce if you like a little hot with your zing

Put ingredients in a mason jar and stir. Store in refrigerator.
Adapted from A Fork's Tale

Blue Cheese
Delicious in 7 minutes

1/3 C mayonnaise
2/3 C plain yoghurt (if using Greek yoghurt)
1 T lemon or lime juice (juice of 1/2 lemon or 1 lime)
2/3 - 1 C blue cheese, crumbled (bleu, gorgonzola)
2 t white wine or rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Put ingredients in a mason jar and stir. Store in refrigerator.

Rich Chocolate Frosting

This delicious frosting is easy if you plan ahead. I keep a can of coconut cream in my fridge so I can make it any time. This is Simone's adaptation of Oh She Glows 2-Ingredient Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

1 can coconut cream (I use Trader Joe's)
6 rectangles unsweetened Baker's Chocolate
3 T agave syrup (or honey)

Chill coconut cream in the can overnight.

Turn can upside down to open. Pour off liquid. Spoon 3 tablespoons from the can into a small saucepan and melt over low heat. Add chocolate and stir to melt. Add agave. (You can substitute honey, but amount may be different. Start with 2 T and add to taste.)

Cool saucepan by setting it in a shallow pan of cold water.

When contents are cool but not solidifying, put remaining coconut cream in a mixing bowl. Whip while dribbling in chocolate mixture.

Chill 3 hours before frosting. Frosted cake or cupcakes will need to be kept cool before serving.

Watermelon Ginger Frappé

At the height of summer, you buy a big watermelon. Eat a bunch of it. Let the juice run down your chin, eat all around the rind and save the most central bit for last, for it is the sweetest. When everyone has had their fill, slice the remaining watermelon into thin slices, a quarter inch or so. Cut the rind off and cut the sliced melon into pieces no bigger than 3" in any direction. Line a baking sheet with cling wrap. Lay all your thin sliced melon on the baking sheet, adding more layers of cling wrap and melon as needed, depending on how much melon you have. Freeze the melon on the baking sheet. Next day, move the melon (but not the cling wrap) to gallon freezer ziplocks and store in the freezer until you need a fancy drink.

In a blender, add frozen melon and Q Ginger until it's the consistency of a slushee. It's delicious! (If corn syrup & processed sugar doesn't bother you, make this with ginger beer. Yum!)

Overnight Oatmeal Pudding

I grew up in a grits house, believing oatmeal to be a disgusting bowl of snot. It's taken 40 years to change my feelings towards oatmeal, and this recipe was the turning point. I also love savory oatmeal, which will be a future post. If you are celiac, use Bob's Red Mill's certified gluten-free oatmeal to make this or any other oatmeal recipe.

In a mason jar, add:
1/4 C Old Fashioned Oven Toasted Oats
1/4 C yoghurt
1/3 C milk
1 T flax or chia seeds (optional)

Stir until well blended, then add:
1/2 - 1 C of fruit - berries, peaches, applesauce, whatever you like.

Leave it in the fridge overnight, and up to 5 days. The oatmeal soaks up the liquids and turns into a delicious, portable breakfast.

Best Cornbread

This is Scott Adams' Deluxe Gluten-Free Cornbread recipe, but with a shorter cooking time. In my oven, at least, the original cooking time leaves it too dry. If you have any leftovers, make them into breadcrumbs. This cornbread is delicious fresh out of the oven, but doesn't hold up over time.

Mix together wet ingredients:
1 C milk or water
1/4 C oil
1/4 C maple syrup
1 egg

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 C cornmeal
1 C rice flour
2 t  baking powder
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Mix wet into dry, pour into a greased 8" or 9" pan and cook in a 400F oven for 15 minutes.

Hearty Stews

It's snowing! Time for hearty stew recipes. I'll post a quick and a slow. I made both yesterday, cooled them overnight in the fridge, and now I'm freezing them in cardboard forms that I made to fit in my crock pot. It's a cunning plan! I hope to unmold the frozen blocks of stew directly into the crock pot and reheat slowly, thus coming home to a delicious dinner.

Chicken Curry (a quick stew)

2 lbs chicken, deboned & cut in 1.5 -2" pieces
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 lb kale, torn off the stems and washed
1 lb baby cut carrots
1/2 lb snow peas or green beans (whole or in half)
1 bell pepper, chopped
3/4 C frozen peas
(these are the vegetables I had in the fridge yesterday; add what you have)
2 cans coconut milk (thin with water if necessary, at the very end)
red & yellow curry paste (available at Asian groceries, and so worth it)

Cook up some rice.

Pour a couple teaspoons of oil in a big stew pot on medium high heat. Add the sliced onions and stir until they're soft. Add the garlic and stir until the onions start to brown.  Take them out, add oil if necessary, and add the carrots. Brown them, and remove. Add oil if necessary, then add half the chicken. Let it brown by not moving it around for a few minutes, then turn the pieces over and brown the other side. Take the chicken out and repeat with the other pound, but instead of taking it out, add curry paste. I cannot possibly tell you how much to use, but I recommend 2 parts red to 1 part yellow. This stuff is strong, so whether you measure in teaspoons or tablespoons is up to your family's tolerance for heat.

Work the curry paste into the oil, splashing in coconut milk as needed. I use a whisk for this. Keep pouring in coconut milk until it's all combined with the curry. Put the remaining browned chicken and onions back into the stew pot, and add the carrots. Cook 10 minutes, then add the remaining vegetables. If you're going to freeze it, stir in the veg and take it off the heat. The freezer and reheating will cook them. If you're eating it now, cook 5-7 minutes. Serve over rice.

A note on vegetable cooking times: Onions, carrots and other root vegetables, and broccoli take more time than leafy greens, peppers, peas, corn, and beans. I pull all the veg I want out of the fridge/freezer and divide them into piles based on how long I want them to cook. You can also slice/chop accordingly - if it's going to cook longer, it can be a bigger piece. If you're using frozen spinach, it's basically already cooked, so add it at the end.

Daube (a slow stew)

2 lbs stew-cut beef or venison
1 large onion, sliced
6-8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 lbs baby cut carrots
1 bottle red wine (3 buck chuck is good)
3-4 T rice flour
3 T dried thyme
oil & butter to cook in (you can substitute oil for butter if you don't eat dairy)

For this one I like to bake it for a while, so I use a pot that can go in a 300F oven. If you don't have that kind of pot, you can simmer if stovetop on very low heat instead.

Pour 2 T oil into your stew pot.Add onions and cook until soft and starting to brown. Add garlic for just a minute, stirring constantly, then pull it all out of the pot. Add 2 T butter, then add 1/2 a pound of meat. Brown the meat quickly, remove it, and do another 1/2 pound, etc, until it's all browned and sitting on top of your onions. Make sure there's visible oil in your pot, 3 tablespoons or more, then dump in the carrots and cook for a few minutes. Sprinkle in the rice flour and thyme, scraping the mixture around the bottom of the pot. When your fat and flour are combined, pour in a little wine. Work your way around the bottom of the pot, deglazing with the wine, scraping up crusty brown stuff from the bottom, and mixing in the roux (cooked fat + flour), until you have a smooth, thick delicious wine broth. If you find that you are drinking wine, substitute some stock or broth for that glass you snuck out of there. Once all the wine and in and the pot deglazed, preheat your oven to 300F and add all meat and onions back in. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours. Traditionally this is served over mashed potatoes, but rice or a crusty Against the Grain baguette are good too.