Thanksgiving

I have plans but lunch comes first.
I soaked some rice cakes over night and fried them up with ginger, garlic, tumeric and bok choy. I added some canned homemade soup since I seem to have stuffed my fridge with it, a can of tuna, and some creamed corn. Leftovers may show up in a pie later.

Gingerbread Pancakes

I like to throw the dry ingredients together ahead of time and keep them in a mason jar. When it's pancake time I pour the unused batter back into the jar and keep it in the refrigerator. It will last a few days.

In a large bowl combine:

3/4 cup brown rice flour (or almond flour)
1/4 cup corn starch (or tapioca flour)
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup oat flour (or coconut flour)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger (or more)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp psylium husk (optional)
1 tsp salt

in a 2nd large bowl whisk together:

2 eggs
2 cups of water
1/4 molasses
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup sunflower (or other mild-flavoured) oil

Whisk dry ingredients into wet ingredients and prepare 1/4 cup at a time on 400 degree Fahrenheit (200ish Celsius) griddle or hot frying pan. Use coconut oil, margarine, or butter on hot pan/griddle before pouring batter for best results.

Serve with maple syrup or my special pancake sauce (recipe below)

Super pancake sauce

Place a small saucepan over medium heat and toast 3 Tbsp hemp seed until aromatic. Remove and pour into mortar and pestle. Add juice from 1/2 a lemon and mash into paste. Reserve.

Place saucepan back on heat and warm 2 roasted, quarted apples with 1 Tbsp oil of your choice (I like butter) while covered. This can be substituted with 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce.

Add to sauce pan:
1/3 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 Tbsp agave syrup or 2 Tbsp of any type of sugar
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup maple blueberry tea, or tea of your choice
reserved hemp seed & lemon mash

Liquefy in blender, serve warm.

Fall flavours

It's that time of year again: time to put away the beach blankets and pull out the dried goods, peel up some winter veggies and snuggle in to some warm comfort food, stewed slowly on the stove.

I've been experimenting all summer long with coconut and papaya mostly and it's carried into the fall. The wheat-free endeavor also continues. Recently there's been endless stew with cornflower/lime/chipotle dumplings and black beans with mango, banana, lemon grass, ginger and coconut milk. Right now there's a giant pot of sliced up cucumbers getting ready to become mustard pickles before the apples and pears move in from the farm to be canned. Ah, it's almost hard to miss the beach yet with a kitchen in a state like this.

Life is good.

So who's ready for some beans?
I have to admit; while for many years I understood the financial benefits of dried beans I mostly used them to take up space in my pantry. Not this year.
But they still seem kind of boring, right?



Vegetarian 'pork' and beans
Tex-Mex black beans and corn
Thai beans with lemon grass and ginger
and Yesterday's stew on cucumber and jicama root
all finished off with a peanut sauce you could eat with cheese or ice cream (my definition of a pretty broad spectrum)


Who's hungry now?

Simple Summer Salad

It's picnic season and my mortar and pestle have been working overtime to develop some tasty and easy concoctions.

I'm leaving out amounts... use as much or as little as you feel like. Variety is encouraged.

jicama root sliced thin
a few sprigs of dill, chopped
tomato seeded and diced
a little onion, green (sliced), sweet white (diced) or red (what else rhymes with those two words that applies to onion shapes?)a handful of fresh local spinach, chopped
a sprinkle of hemp seeds

dressing:

small handful of unsalted cashews
splash of rice vinegar
dollop of honey
good ol' squeeze of dijon
salt to taste (or oddball organics smoked garlic chipotle salt from Granville island or www.oddballorganics.com )(if you order anything from this guy try the nuclear nectar too... wow!)

Mash the cashews in a mortar with the pestle, add the vinegar and honey and mash again to a smooth paste, add the dijon, salt, and if it's too thick to call dressing thin it down with some almond milk... or whatever type of milk-like product you keep on hand.

Voila!
Honestly, who buys salad dressing? You may start asking yourself this question after you taste this :)