cookie love

Our darling daughter wanted adventures for her birthday.  But adventures are sometimes very hard to come by.

I made her coupons for some momma made clothes and chocolate chip cookies.  She asked for chocolate chip cookies last week.  I use the Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie recipe:

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTLÉ-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx

I do a few modifications:  leave out the nuts and cut down the chocolate chips to 3/4 cup.  If you can leave the dough of bowl in the refrigerator overnight, it helps.  I learned that from the nytimes.com!

This is faerie love.  She was pleased.

By the way, the adventure?  She got sky diving lessons and now has her A license.  

malted love

We like to go to Katz's Deli and have cheesecake milkshakes.  But lets be honest here, the milkshakes are much too big, even if two share them.  And they cost many pennies.  We decided to started making something similar at home.  Okay, this is a malt but it is yummy!

Vanilla Malts

1 pint the best vanilla ice cream (Blue Bell in Texas, Tillamok in Oregon or Washington)

1 cup plain hempmilk

1/4 cup malt (Carnation malted milk mix)

Put everything in a blender container, cover, and whir it on low until the big chunks are broken up. Then whir it on high until the malt is smooth.

Pour into two juice glasses and share with your love.  See that hand?  My truck got an oil change today!  And the faerie got taught how to change the oil in her "new" vehicle.  That is love.  

gluten free vegan pumpkin gnocchi

I saw a recipe for pumpkin gnocchi in the nytimes.com last week for Thanksgiving.  I liked the idea of it except for the eggs.  So I changed it (what else is new, right?)

Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Gnocchi

16 ounces pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling)

1 teaspoon salt

2 ounces potato starch

1 ounce tapioca flour

1 ounce sorghum flour

1ounce amaranth flour

1 teaspoon xanathan gum

Mix everything together.  I just start from the top of the list and work down.

I take a teaspoon of dough and roll into a ball.  I let this dry overnight.  That was not the plan.  I was only going to let them dry for a couple hours but plans changed.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Drop in the gnocchi and cook until they float to the top.

I served them with a tomato vodka sauce.  The texture was absolutely fabulous.  Russell really liked them.  I should have remembered that I am not usually very found of the pumpkin or squash pasta.  Good but will probably not make again for myself.  I like my pumpkin sweeter and/or spicier.

vegan picadillo

I am very aware that picadilllo is a meat hash.  But when you feeding someone with food allergies, you figure it out.  

Vegan Picadillo

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 potato, chopped into chunks

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1/2 to 1 cup raisons

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

In a large skillet, over medium heat, pour the oil.

Dump in the potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Add in the raisons.  I usually let this brown up a bit and give it a good stir and cover.  I check back in ten minutes to see how everything is going and then add in the frozen vegetables if the potatoes seem about half way done.  I cover again.  In ten minutes or so, I add the spices.  Stir REALLY well.  Cover and let meld for a few minutes.

I serve this with flour or corn tortillas.

This is a kitchen sink recipe.  Sometimes I add onion and garlic. Sometimes there are no mixed vegetables.  Sometimes it is every vegetable in the refrigerator that needs to be used.  Just no meats.

baked sweet potato fries

One of our favorite meals is bean burgers with sweet potato fries.  It is easy and yummy.  Especially if you have bbq sauce for the fries.

So here are the fries.  I will do the bean burgers tomorrow.

Sweet Potato Fries

1/2 to 1 sweet potato per person (this will depend on the size of the sweet potato)

olive oil

salt

pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice in fry shape.  For crispy fries, you will want thin.  For none crispy, you will wish to make them thick.  Put on a baking dish, cookie sheet, oven proof skillet, or pizza pan.  One of my pizza pans is cast iron and it works superb with this.

Drizzle with olive oil.  Toss around.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Just a little at this stage.

Put in the oven for ten minutes.  Stir.  Put in the oven for ten more minutes.  Stir again.  Back in the oven for at least ten more minutes.  If they are as crispy as you wish, pull them out.  If not, stir and back in to the oven they go until as crispy as you like.

Taste one and see if they need anymore salt or pepper.  This is all about your taste.  Serve and enjoy.  Like I said, bbq sauce goes really well with them.  And those are bean burgers in the picture.