Kabob Skewers

This is barely a recipe.  This is easily the most customizable, delicious summer meal there is. 

Chop some vegetables into big chunks.  When I started this recipe, I realized I had barely any food left in the house.  Peppers and mushrooms.  Consider adding onions, seasonal veggies (Asparagus!  Wild leeks!), broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, bok choy, and whatever else sounds good.

  Add the meat of your choice, chopped into bite-sized pieces.  Chicken or venison are my faves.

Skewer everything!  I got these awesome flexible stainless steel skewers.  I can't wait to grill with them!

The day I made these, it was a little on the windy side and my mini grill just isn't that robust.  That's okay, the broiler works just fine for these.  Add some spices - whatever you want!  Salt and pepper, for sure, and maybe something cajun or chipotle.

Broil for 5 minutes per side, making sure the meat gets cooked through.  These skewers were really easy to flip.

Roasted veggies are the best.

Serve these veggies over rice, cauli rice...or just by themselves!

One really great thing about these is that you can pretty much use anything.  Any veggies, any meat, any spices!  It's one of those perfect summer dishes.

Red Quinoa Salad with Basil

I'm seriously lacking in photos for this one, but it was just so tasty.  And Memorial Day is right around the corner.  So why not.  Let's put it on the blog.  This is a great recipe to bring to gatherings of people.

Red Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 c. uncooked red quinoa
• 1/2 large bell pepper
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 lime (juice and zest)
• 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbs. red wine vinegar
• 1 tbs. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper

Instructions
1.  Cook the quinoa according to the directions on the package.  Put in the fridge to cool.
2.  Chop the pepper and tomato, toss with the quinoa.  Add the lime juice and zest.
3.  Mix up the remaining ingredients and toss with the quinoa. 
4.  Top with chopped basil leaves for garnish.

To make up for my lack of photos, please enjoy the following pics from my little brother's art show, which used reclaimed materials.  I would really like to title this one "Jaws."  I am not sure he would appreciate that.

And this is me with my brother and his truly delightful lady friend.  Photobomb courtesy of our mutual friend.

And for funsies, here's a salad I made that was particularly pretty.

Okay, well that's all for now.  If everything goes according to plan, I should be having a lovely trip down to North Carolina right about now.

Tomatillo Green Chili

I love this perfectly paleo soup.  In fact, the recipe comes from Paleo Comfort Foods.  I tweaked quite a bit, mostly because I have so much salsa verde from last summer.

Actually, I used canned turkey, too.  My family has been canning turkey for as long as I remember, so it's nothing new or weird to me.  You can also use chicken breasts or turkey.

Start by sauteing an onion, a couple garlic cloves, a poblano pepper, and a couple de-veined and de-seeded jalapenos.

 To that I added 2 pints (4 cups) of salsa verde.

 And next, 1 quart (4 cups) cooked, shredded chicken or turkey breast.  Plus spices.

Garnish with green onions and some cilantro.

Tomatillo Green Chili (adapted from this book)


Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1 poblano pepper
• 2 jalapeno peppers, de-veined and de-seeded
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 c. salsa verde
• 4 c. cooked, shredded turkey breast
• broth, if needed
• 1 tbs cumin
• salt and pepper

Instructions
1.  Chop up the onions, peppers, and garlic.  Saute them over medium heat with a high-heat oil (coconut oil preferred).
2.  Add the salsa verde, turkey and spices.
3.  If needed, add some chicken broth to thin the soup out a little bit.
4.  Simmer over medium heat for 15-20 minutes.

This soup is a tangy green twist on traditional chili - very tasty.

Goals Summary

Well.  May.  It’s here.  There’s no turning back now.

A few short weeks ago, I picked out some goals for April.

• Make barefoot sandals for my beach party.  They are very lovely.  Maybe I will even include a picture.
• I'm teaching all my friends a dance routine.  People, I am telling you right now: I have the best friends in the world.
• I'm going to make seed bombs.  Heck yes!  Well, okay, I started them.  Would you like to see a post on seed bomb making?
• I'm going to start planting my garden!  Yeah, I did nothing of the sort.  I did buy a basil plant and a rosemary plant though.
• I made it my personal goal for the lake by my house to melt.  See the photo at the top of the post.
• Wine bottling: done and done (I bottled two batches).  This means that ALL of my wine is bottled, and I get to take a break until we start seeing some fruit come into season!
• I was a bridesmaid in a wedding!  Oh my gosh, what a fun night!  And the decorations were really fabulous too.

What?  Check out how much work I got done!  Well, it's the little wins that matter, and I definitely won some little battles this month.  I'm feeling pretty accomplished.

Here’s my secret: I pulled the plug on home internet mid-April.  In a pinch, I can still use my phone, but I would say I’ve gained a couple hours EACH NIGHT in time I used to waste on social networking and a couple other sites.  Now, I get home from work and there’s nothing to do but projects.  And honestly, I think with summer right around the corner, I’m not going to regret my decision.  We’ll see.  (FYI, after the first year of “promo rate” was over, Charter doubled the price of internet in a mere six months.  It was ludicrous.  If they can afford to give me internet for half the “normal” rate for a year, then they’re clearly taking my checkbook for a ride.  That’s in addition to the daily/weekly spam mail, spam phone calls, etc)

I don’t want to talk about May, but let’s talk about May.  Right now my to-do list is so big I have to scroll down to see it all.  That being said, I have no idea what to put on my goals list.

• Survive.  Actually, thrive.  I know I’ll survive.  It’s a matter of how well I’ll handle it.
• Be realistic about stress.  There are things to stress about, and there are things that aren’t worth stressing over.
• Spend a night in the garden.  Maybe plant some things.  Enjoy the sunshine and the dirt.
• I’ve got a budget that I haven’t been doing too well at.  Goal for May: stay within ten percent of my budget.  Better yet: under budget.
• Blog once a week . It’s a little more difficult now that I don’t have internet at home, but since I can schedule my posts, it’s easy to get ahead and that’s how it’s done.

Okay, I feel like that’s a pretty worthy list.  I know I said April would be a wild ride, but it’s nothing compared to May.  Thank goodness for the support of friends and family.  That nightly glass of wine is a big help too.

Let’s do this.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've already blogged about a paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe, but these are completely different.  The first recipe was made with coconut flour, this one is made with nut flours.

The first nut is the pecan.  Food-processed to a flour-like consistency (I didn't process them nearly enough).

The next nut is the almond.  I used almond flour that I had left over from making almond milk.

The real reason I wanted to try this recipe was because it has no sugar in it.  It uses stevia (which I am still trying to get used to - it's got some bitterness).  The chocolate also adds sweetness.

I hardly ever make cookies.  I'm still trying to figure out how to forecast how much flattening paleo cookies do.  Usually it's not much.

I do most of my blog food making on Sunday, because there's actually some decent light coming in for photography.

Baked for 12 minutes, it's hard to resist a cookie fresh out of the oven.

These cookies did not do any flattening.

These cookies were way crumbly.  I think it would have helped if I'd processed the pecans more.  Anyway, if you really want to try it, the recipe is here.  I still haven't found any paleo dessert that I've liked more than the Double Chocolate Orange Torte, although if I feel like putting some effort into it, the Chocolate-Orange Cake Roll was really awesome too (and was even better using mint extract in place of the orange).

Paleo Pizza (with lots of cheese)

I have finally found a paleo-friendly pizza crust recipe (albeit full of cheese, but most of them are).  This crust is strong enough to hold in your hand like a regular pizza, and virtually carb-free.

Okay, stay with me on this one - this is going to be a stretch - but the crust is basically made out of mozzarella, cream cheese, eggs and ground up pork rinds.

Yes.  Pork rinds.

I have never eaten a pork rind before.  I was determined to try one before making this crust, but when I opened the bag, the smell was just too...vile.  I couldn't do it.  Luckily, there isn't much pork rind flavor in the final product.  This pizza was delicious.

I tried putting the pork rinds in the food processor and I also tried just crushing them by hand.  They started to clump up in the food processor, but since that creates a finer grain, that would be my final suggestion.  Start out by mixing up eggs, cream cheese, mozzarella and spices.

Add the pork rinds last.  The mixture gets thick and creamy.  Spread it out over a very well-greased pan (I used liberal amounts of bacon grease).

Bake the crust for 20 minutes at 425*.

While that's in the oven, chop up your pizza toppings.

The more the merrier!  After the crust comes out of the oven, top with pizza sauce (beware of store-bought pizza sauces, which are full of sugar).  Then add meat and veggies.

And of course, more cheese never hurt anyone.  Plus it helps hold the toppings together.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is bubbly, then let it stand for a few minutes before consuming.

Pork Rind Pizza Crust (I followed the recipe here pretty closely)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• 1 tbs dried basil
• 1/2 tbs ground garlic
• 1 c. ground up pork rinds (about half a 1.75 oz bag)

Instructions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 425*F. 

2.  Mix up the cheeses, eggs, and spices.  Add the ground pork rinds.

3.  Heavily grease a 9x13 pan.  Spread the dough out in the pan.  Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then remove from oven and let stand for a few minutes.

4.  Top with pizza toppings of your choice.  Bake for 10-12 more minutes until cheese is bubbly.  Let stand for a few minutes before serving.

The crust is surprisingly airy but strong enough to hold in your hand like a "normal" pizza.  I am happy enough with this recipe to call it my go-to paleo pizza recipe.  It has a ton of cheese in it, but it's definitely the best alternative I've tried so far.  (previous attempts: Paleo Cauliflower Pizza Crust, "meatza" - made with a flattened chicken breast as the "crust."  Apparently I never actually blogged about that one.)

Anyway, try this one out. Let me know if you like it.  It's gluten-free, nut-free, coconut-free, etc, which makes it pretty friendly to a lot of different sensitivities.

Whiskey Gingers + Candied Ginger Root

I have never liked ginger ale.  But when I chanced upon the phrase "Whiskey Ginger," I felt a connection.  What if, just what if, there was more to this story than just store-bought ginger ale?  My local grocery has started stocking ginger root within the past year.  It was time to add a new favorite drink to my repertoire.

Start with ginger. It's an oddly shaped, stringy root.  Usually by the time they hit the store they've been well-cleaned (maybe even too well-cleaned...).

The recipe calls for 2 cups of fresh ginger.  The root I bought was .75 lbs and ended up being just over 2 cups (skinned and sliced).  A vegetable peeler worked really well to skin it, then I just sliced it with a knife.  A mandolin would also be appropriate if you're looking for thin, uniform slices.

Bring two cups of sugar and one cup of water to a boil.  As soon as it starts to boil, add the sliced ginger.  Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Let it cool a bit, then strain the ginger slices out of the syrup.

Rinse the ginger root slices in water, then pat dry.  Toss them with sugar and lay them out on wax paper for about 24 hours (depending on slice thickness).

The candied ginger root is very strong, and I recommend nibbling a small piece at first so that you know what you're up against.  It's spicy, sort of the way cinnamon candies can be hot and spicy.

On to the drink portion of this week's post!

The fun part....  Add 1 shot of whiskey and 2 (large) tablespoons of ginger syrup to a glass.

Add about one cup of club soda (sparkling water).  Stir to combine.  Garnish with a piece of candied ginger.

It tastes like summer...and almost makes up for the fact that all the snow here melted, and today it's all back again.  This drink is good enough that I would drink it WITHOUT the whiskey.  Then it's just homemade ginger ale - no HFCS, no aspartame, no chemicals.  Just ginger, sugar, and sparkling water.

Candied Ginger Root + Whiskey Gingers (inspired by this)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups skinned, sliced ginger root (roughly .75 lbs whole ginger root)
• 2 cups + .5 cups sugar (I used raw, which made my syrup darker)
• 1 cup water
• 2 shots whiskey
• 2 cups sparkling water

Instructions:
1.  Bring 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar to a boil.  Just as it starts to boil, add the ginger root.  Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Let cool.
2.  Drain off the syrup and reserve for later.  Rinse the ginger root in water then pat dry.  Toss with half a cup of sugar until well-coated.  Lay the candied ginger pieces out on waxed paper for 24 hours to dry.
3.  Make the drinks:  for each drink, use 2 large tablespoons of syrup, 1 shot of whiskey, and 1 cup of sparkling water.
4.  Keep remaining syrup refrigerated.

This is the perfect drink for a hot summer day...or even a cold winter day when you need to be reminded of what summer is like.