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Hello friends, it’s been a while!
I thought it was about time to pop back here and give you some glimpses of what’s been happening around here!
There has been art! So much art I have made and sold and not even gotten chance to share here!
And purging ... much clearing and purging and unloading of the “stuff” to make room for the new and energizing!
I’ve also been busy reorganizing and redecorating many rooms. They feel lighter now ... in color and in energy!
In the shuffle, there was also a chest of drawers make-over and a brand new picture wall, that is yet to be filled!
Also two peg boards, one still being in progress in my daughter’s room!
And so much more! But I think, for now, I will just give you a few glimpses!
My latest love is plaster sculpting! All of the above is work in progress right now - and then some! I’m totally loving the houses/niches!
The garden is thriving, despite the recent weeks of hard frost. But in true low dessert fashion, we’re quite warm again now!
Not even the arts/craft room/studio was spared the purging and organizing!
The revamped IKEA dresser and some of the yet to be filled empty frames on the picture wall!
The beginnings of some nourishing bone broth!
The cat is served!
Pin ItA bold claim, I know! And I don’t just mean “the best brownies, considering they are GAPS/Paleo/Grain-free.” No, THE best brownies.
To quote my husband: “Whatever you had written down as the brownie recipe you were going to make for the rest of your life - scratch it and make these instead!”
Yep. And my husband does not follow a GAPS diet, or paleo or even grain-free, or gluten-free. He could eat any old brownie if he wanted to!
Somehow they manage to be fudgy and slightly cake-y at the same time! As far as I’m concerned - that’s pretty perfect!
This recipe started it’s life as one of Megan’s (a.k.a. Detoxinista) recipes for brownies made from almond pulp. Don’t know who that is? You are so missing out! She has a wonderful blog, full of awesome, healthy and oh so tasty recipes!
Anyway, after playing around with the recipe for a while, adjusting ingredients and amounts, I came up with a GAPSified version, that works really well, is packed with nutrition, doesn’t use a ton of almond flour, and, as mentioned above, is now our absolute favorite!
And they couldn’t be easier to make. Just dump everything in a bowl, whisk to combine, bake, done! And if you’ve done “specialty recipes” before, “quick and easy” is NOT a given!
1/3 cup organic unsweetened applesauce (I use homemade)
1/4 cup ghee (or coconut oil)
1/3 cup raw honey*
1/3 cup date sugar (I use this one)
1/2 cup almond flour (I use Honeyville Almond Flour)
1/2 cup organic cocoa powder (I use this one)
2 tsp. organic vanilla extract
2 large eggs, pastured
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of sea salt
*I use our local raw hickory honey - it is fairly thick, pretty mild in flavor but strong in sweetening power, even when baked. You may have to adjust your honey accordingly, depending on how it comes through once baked and how liquid it is. The closest commercially available honey that compares to my local ones in both flavor and consistency, is this one, another favorite of mine!
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease and line an 8”x8” dish or pan with parchment paper.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl until an even and thick batter results.
Bake for 25 minutes, until the middle is no longer jiggley and the edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan.
Allow to cool before serving.
Note: For an extra decadent treat, frost with a little of this buttercream once completely cool. SO good!
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12 lbs. fresh tomatoes, quartered (for canned tomatoes, see note)
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red pepper, diced
1/4 cup celery leaves or chopped celery stalks
1/4 cup of ghee (or butter - optional, but I would highly recommend it!)
1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice (if you are canning this is essential)
1 Ceylon cinnamon stick, broken up a bit
2 tsp whole cloves
about 7 whole allspice berries
2 garlic chive stems, with flower heads (or 1 clove of garlic - I can't use garlic due to husband's allergy)
1 cup pure honey (You may need more or less - somewhat depends on what kind of honey you have and how strongly it comes through)
1/2 cup date sugar
2-2 1/2 tbsp. herbamare (or sea salt)
1 small can of organic tomato paste
Combine tomatoes, onion, bell pepper,and celery in a large stockpot (mine is 9 quarts and it was just enough) Crush the tomatoes slightly with a potato masher to make enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until tomatoes are soft and falling apart, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the vinegar to a small saucepan. Add the spices and garlic (chive flower heads) and bring to a boil over high heat.
Remove from heat and let stand for about 30 minutes or so. Pour vinegar through a strainer into the tomato mix. Discard spices. Simmer tomatoes, for another 30 minutes.
The lid is off from now on.
In batches, run the tomato mixture through a food mill (fine disk) to remove seeds & skins. Or press through a sieve, or puree in a food processor then sieve.
Return pulp to the stockpot, add tomato puree, lemon juice and ghee and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until the volume is reduced by about half, and the texture is about the thickness of a thick tomato sauce. Takes about 3 hours at a gentle simmer. You can turn the heat up higher to shorten the simmer time, but you will need to be close by to stir frequently.
Prepare canner, jars and lids.
Blend tomato pulp with an immersion blender or puree in a food processor/blender. Return to stockpot, add honey, date sugar & salt, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Simmer, stirring occasionally - I would really recommend using splatter guard if you have one, at this point!
Just keep simmering away until it is just a little thinner than you want the final product to be, (ketchup will further thicken when cold.)
If you're canning, fill hot jars to ½-inch headspace, wipe rims, affix lids and process in a boiling water bath for about 20 min.
Or you can freeze the ketchup.
Notes:
1.) If using canned tomatoes, use 6 x 28 oz. cans and omit the food mill step, as skins have already been removed.
2.) If you're not canning the ketchup (or you are pressure canning it,) you can omit the lemon juice and replace with 1/4 c of ACV. The lemon juice is just to keep the home canning safe.
6 lbs. or so of Pork loin (excess fat removed)
3/4 gallon water
3/4 - 1 cup Himalayan sea salt
1 cup raw honey
1 tbsp. dried sage
1 tbsp. dried thyme
8 whole peppercorns
1 cup fresh celery juice (optional)
1 l prepared water kefir (also optional, but does help to prepare pork properly) - or more water + 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice
Place the water, salt, sage, thyme and peppercorns into a saucepan. Heat and stir until salt is dissolved. Let it cool until just barely warm, then add 1 cup of raw honey. Stir until dissolved.
Let it cool all the way to room temperature, then add 1 bottle of homemade water kefir - this is less for flavor and more for the acid base to properly prepare pork, even though the flavor does contribute. I love using homemade water kefir root beer in this!
Add the fresh celery juice too. Stir to combine.
Note that celery juice does contain some natural nitrates, so if you are trying to avoid them, omit the celery juice. I am adding it for flavor, more than anything else.
I cut the loin into about 3 -4 pieces - they brine and smoke more evenly that way.
Place each piece in a gallon zip lock bag, divide brine amongst it.
I like to place my bags in a little box or basket, so they are pushed together a little more. The brine rises and covers all the meat. That way you don't have to turn the meat. If you don’t do it this way, turn the meat once a day, so all the sides get brined evenly.
Place in the fridge and let it brine for 3-4 days.
Remove meat from brine and rinse well. Pat it really dry.
{A double batch, just before smoking.}
I hickory smoke it for 3.5-4 hrs. at 200 F until the internal temp is 150F.
{All done! Now just cooling down before slicing and freezing!}
Let it cool and slice/shave it thinly (with a deli slicer!)
{Yum!}
Store in the refrigerator. Unlike the commercial ham, this will not keep nearly as long, even when refrigerated, since we have no preservatives. Treat it like you would any other cooked meat.
I find that slicing one of the pieces and keeping it in the fridge, while freezing the others and then taking them out one by one as we slice and eat it, works well!
This is not your run-of-the-mill caramel ice cream. It has a very satisfying honey flavor with a hint of salted caramel, enveloped in a rich and velvety ice cream texture.
And, this ice cream is scoop-able right out of the freezer!
My children have declared it “the best ice cream you ever made.” That is high praise, especially since they love all the other ice creams I have made before!
3/4 cup of pure honey
2 tbsp. water
1 can of Coconut milk
1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt
4 egg yolks (fresh, preferably from pastured chickens) room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup of cultured cream (I make mine from raw milk, culturing it for 24 hrs. with some milk kefir grains)
Place the honey and the water in a pan. Let it cook to 240 F (soft boil stage) on your candy thermometer. This takes about 8-10 minutes.
Then, carefully, add 1 can of coconut milk and 1/2 tsp of sea salt and stir to combine.
Let it cook until the temperature goes back up to 190 - 200F.
It will look like sweetened condensed milk, but a bit more runny.
Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temp.
Then add 4 egg yolks, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups of cultured cream. Whisk together and process in the ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, that is fine. Whisk it a little longer to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients and whip in some air. Then pour into a container and freeze over night.
If you are processing this in an ice cream maker, please note that this particular ice cream will stay really slushy and soft. It barely gets to soft serve stage, so just transfer it to your ice cream container and freeze at least over night.
Unlike other ice creams, this scoops right out of the freezer, so no need to set this ice cream out to thaw a bit before serving.
Enjoy!
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Hello and welcome! The Daily Bytes Blog initially started out as the extension of my digital scrapbooking design business. Over the years, it additionally morphed into the place where I shared a lot of my interests, loves, musings and hobbies. For the last several years, I took a break from regular blogging and was more focused on sharing my art journey through Facebook and Instagram.
