Gingerbread Popcorn: Streetname...G-Crack

I'm loathe to even reprint this heinous recipe. Especially since it's after Christmas and there's absolutely no call, NO CALL I tell you, for making this. Just don't go there. Don't do it.
Weeeeelllll, you could just try a 1/3 of the recipe. Maybe 1/2 since it's easier to figure that way. ;-)

G-Crack:
(gleaned from Culinary in the Desert's blog)

15 cups of popped popcorn (I used 3 bags of Central Market's All Natural microwave popcorn)
2 cups of packed brown sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 250

Line 2 large baking dishes (I used 9 X 13 glass pans) with foil and coat with cooking spray. Fill each with 7 1/2 cups popcorn.

Combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil for 5 minutes; stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat.

Bake at 250 for one hour, carefully stirring the warm mixture about every 15 minutes. Cool completely then store in an airtight container.

Vegan Spelt Banana Nut or Chocolate Muffins

What's a gal to do when there are too many nanners in the house to eat up? Duh.

These are so scrummy! I just love whole spelt flour...tastes so much better than wheat in my opinion. The Monster isn't a fan of walnuts or pecans, either of which are very nice in this, so I made half (4) with walnuts for me, and half with some luxe organic dark chocolate chips for him.
If you'd rather bake up a loaf, this fits nicely in an 4.5" x 8.5" loaf pan and would cook in about 42 minutes according to the original (pre-tweeking) recipe I found on Recipe Zaar.
This made 8 regular sized muffins for me. After "samples", 6 for the freezer!

Vegan Spelt Banana Nut or Chocolate Muffins:

3 ripe bananas (I had small organic nanners...I used 4 1/2 totalling about 1 1/4 cups mashed?)
1/2 cup agave nectar or maple syrup (I used agave)
3 Tbs canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
~3/4 cup walnuts or pecans (sub chocolate or carob chips if you have any loony walnut/pecan shunners in your house too. Probably just use 1/3-1/2 cup though.)

Heat oven to 350.
Oil muffin tin (or loaf pan...cooking for ~42 min).
In a bowl, mash bananas then add agave/maple, canola oil, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, sift together spelt flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Blend the wet and dry mixtures, then fold in nuts or chocolate chips.
Pour into oiled muffin and bake for about 22-23 minutes, or until tops just spring back upon applying gentle pressure and or a toothpick comes out cleanly.
Remove from oven and let cool in tin for about 5 minutes.
Remove from tin and place on a rack to finish cooling.
I do highly recommend at least one or 2 "sample" muffins eaten warm.

Wholemeal Buckwheat Bread

Here's my new favorite non-yeasted bread for a healthy New Year. I gave a dry mix of this to my mom for Christmas...jury is still out on weather or not she'll like it as much as I do. Some of the ingredients might be harder to come by for some, but I just love this toothsome stuff and find it well worth the trek to Whole Foods market to gather them. The first time I made the recipe from Susan Jane Murray's site, I used rolled oats in lieu of the rolled millet/barley. It resulted in a longer cooking time, but was still good. I like to cook this in a 9x13 pan and then cut into 8 planks when done. I pop them in the freezer and they're there for me whenever I want one. I've eaten them toasted with a fried egg on top or topped with some mashed avocado, lemon and sea salt (YUM), plain ol' buttered, and also toasted and broken up over my morning yogurt with fruit. All delish! Be forwarned, this opinion belongs to someone who happens to love buckwheat and is also into alternative "granola" type foods. :-) Susan Jane's site is an awesome new find for me. I hope to try out more of her recipes soon.
Jeez...typing this up has made me very sad not to have any tucked away in the freezer. Off I go to make some more!

Wholemeal Buckwheat Bread:
(adapted from Susan Jane Murray)

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1 teaspoon Herbamare seasoning or celery salt (Herbamare is awesome stuff! My new fave and I've found it in several stores...no need to purchase online)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Vietnamese is best)
3/4 cup rolled barley (couldn't find the rolled millet the orig. recipe called for, and barley only from Whole Foods)
1/2 cup whole buckwheat grains (I toast 'em first in a dry skillet, stirring until a nice nutty fragrance develops)
3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
2 cups of milk or carrot juice (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
2 tablespoons of honey or agave

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Grease a 9x13 cake pan with a bit of oil, then line with parchment.

2. Sieve buckwheat flour, soy flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, seasoning and spices into a large bowl to introduce air and make it fluffy.

3. Add rolled barley, whole buckwheat grains, sunflower seeds and milk and sweetener. It should be of pouring consistency.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes , or when a toothpick comes out clean.

5. Remove from oven, flip out onto a rack and allow cool. When cooled I use a pizza cutter wheel to zip through the bread to make 8 individual pieces, then slip them into a large freezer bag and store in the freezer. Better I think after it sits a bit...the buckwheat groats get a chance to soften up some.

To your good health in the New Year!!

Dee-lish Tempeh Curry

I can't believe this is my first time cooking tempeh! I did a quick online search for tempeh recipes before heading to the market and up popped this lovely from Diet, Dessert, and Dogs. As it happens, Ricki of DD&D is also following an anti-candida diet plan, so her recipe was definitely the one for me. So good and so easy, this one will be made again soon.
I did add quite a bit more broth than she did, but you can just add as needed. In fact when I reheated the leftovers for lunch today I added half a bunch of organic chard and more broth still and mixed it with a bit of cooked quinoa. Even better than last night. Next time I'll make this with a full bunch of chard, or other green at the start.
Note that Ricki's recipe doesn't mention when to add the tempeh back in...I added it with the peas.
There also wasn't a salt amount given, but since I was using unsalted almond butter, I added ~1/2-3/4 tsp Kosher salt, along with a touch of cayenne for some heat.
I served this with a side of raita made with goat's milk yogurt, cucumber, and fresh mint.
Do try this recipe! Especially if you've never cooked tempeh before...super yum.

Broiled Rainbow Trout

I was thrilled to find that our fishmonger had just gotten these lovely whole dressed rainbow trout in on the morning I visited. I'd always wanted to just cook the whole fish...well, not quite the whole fish...I had her whack off the heads so they wouldn't be staring at us from our plates! I should have had her take the tails off too, but I'll know better next time. This couldn't be an easier preparation for some quickie protein. We've started eating more rainbow trout in lieu of tilapia these days for it's better fat profile. Tilapia apparently has a whole lot of omega 6 fatty acids, and those really aren't very good for you. Not that I won't eat it anymore, just that I'll take the rainbow trout over tilapia if it works for my recipe.
Right as I was about to slice up some store bought lemon for the insides of the fishies, the Monster walked in the door with 3, count 'em 3!, beautiful meyer lemons grown by a very generous collegue!! Yippee yahooey! So away went the store bought lemon and one of the meyers went under the knife instead.
We ate the trout with roasted eggplant, steamed veggies topped with hummus and some whole wheat naan. Well, I ate eggplant & veggies/hummus...Monster just had the veggies with naan and hummus. ;-) SOOO hard to watch him eat that naan!!!

Broiled Rainbow Trout:

Whole dressed trout fillets
lemon juice
olive oil
Kosher salt
sweet smoked paprika
cayenne pepper; just a pinch
fresh or dried thyme
thin lemon slices

Pre-heat broiler on high with the rack ~4" away from the flame. I used the uppermost rack in my oven.
Brush insides of fish with olive oil, then squeeze lemon juice in each.
sprinkle salt, paprika, cayenne and thyme within the fish.
Finish each with 3 thin slices of lemon.
Place on lightly oiled foil lined baking sheet and broil for 4 minutes.
Flip the fish and broil for another 4 minutes and your fishies should be done.

Watch for bones when eating these puppies. Delish!

Roasted Eggplant

I've finally discovered that just because the Monster doesn't like eggplant, doesn't mean I can't just make it for myself. Specially since they come in all sorts of groovy shapes and sizes! When I first made this "recipe" I used paler purple, long skinny Japanese eggplants. This time I found a cute 6" tall globe eggplant and it cooked up just as nicely. I went a little longer in the oven since it was fatter than the others. Just watch your time depending on how big your eggplant is. The smaller ones tend to be less seedy, and therefore less prone to tasting bitter. Also, look for a smaller green cap and firm, shiny skin.

Roasted Eggplant with Thyme:

Eggplant (as many as you'd like to roast)
Kosher salt
olive oil
fresh thyme sprigs
fresh lemon juice to serve (optional)

Slice eggplant in half from it's top to it's bottom. Make deep crosshatching slashes almost to the skin. Salt each half with Kosher salt, getting it all the way down into the cuts.
Let eggplant sit, cut side up for 30 minutes.

~15 minutes into the salting process, pre-heat oven to 400.

Squeeze liquid from eggplant over the sink and wipe away the excess salt. I tend to rinse the eggplants so they're not too salty, but the original recipe didn't have you do that. Just make sure to really squeeze all the water/liquid from them well and dry with a paper towel.
Brush cuts sides with olive oil and place several sprigs of thyme on each before placing cut side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
I tend to lightly oil the skins of the eggplant too.
Roast for 20-45+ minutes depending on the shape/size of your eggplant. I like them nice and soft but not mushy, but whatever floats your boat.
They're lovely with a little lemon squeezed over them.

Puree of Celery Root Soup

Yay! Something else I can eat! We had a loooong rainy Sunday at home and this was just the ticket for lunch paired with a simple salad. You may have passed by the lowly looking celery root (or celeriac) in the grocery store because 1) it's ugly as sin and 2) what the heck would you do with it anyway??
Well now you know...make this soup! :-)
I found a really big root, so I multiplied the recipe written below by 1.5 when I made it. Good thing too, as it wouldn't have made much otherwise. I'd go ahead and double the recipe next time using 2 lbs of celery root.
Orangette said to use a regular blender, not a food processor or stick blender, or the soup doesn't seem to emulsify properly.

Puree of Celery Root Soup:
(Adapted from the NYT, discovered on Orangette's lovely blog)

2 ½ Tbs olive oil, divided
1 small leek, white and very light green part only, coarsely chopped
½ medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 lb. peeled, chopped celery root (I only had to use 1 since that mother was 1.5 lbs!)
3 cups mild chicken or vegetable broth
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
4-5 Tbs skim milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
Chopped chervil, for serving (optional)

In a large saucepan over medium heat, warm 2 Tbs olive oil. Add the leek, onion, celery (but not the celery root like I did!), and garlic, and sauté until softened but not browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
Add the celery root, broth, and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and simmer until the celery root is very tender. It should break apart easily when poked with a fork; on my stove, this takes about 35-45 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat.

Using a blender and working in small batches – when working with hot liquids, never fill the blender more than 1/2 full and hold cover down with a kitchen towel - purée the soup until very smooth. Add the remaining ½ Tbs oil and the milk, and stir to incorporate. Taste, and adjust seasoning as necessary. Reheat gently until just steaming.

Makes 4 small servings as written