Dairy Free Whipped "Cream"

The cream I use for my coffee is a full fat coconut milk, BUT it has added emulsifiers to keep it from separating. the cheaper stuff that our local Walmart carries and some other brands don't have those emulsifiers in them. that's a simple label read. what you want your coconut milk to say is "Coconut, water"

So you take your coconut milk and you set it in the fridge over night, the fat from the coconut will rise to the top, and get hard just like beef fat on a beef soup. when you open the can you can scoop the fat off of the top of the can and drain off the coconut water that is left behind. Don't dump that out though, i pour mine over my oatmeal instead of the customary cream it adds a lot to it. you can also use it for LOADS of other things. smoothies and such. 

well so get your fat and keep it cold just like you would regular whipping cream. and start beating it with your mixer.  i used multiple cans for my thanksgiving  dinner since i am having 12 my recipe is for 1 can.

Dairy Free Whipped Cream

1 can of cold coconut milk separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons of powdered sugar (or to taste) 

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

if it starts to get a bit soft, simply put it back in the fridge and let it get firm again. ONE of the pluses to this over cow's cream is cow's cream tends to separate even if its in the fridge, this wont. i swear it wont. i didn't believe it either, but the last i made held for 4 days and even then i didn't throw it out (it went in my coffee) yea watch me pack on the pounds now LOL!

The BEST Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie You Will Ever Eat!

In order for me to make a dairy free pumpkin pie this year i had to search down a recipe that did not have sweetened condensed milk in them. that's a lot harder than you think. but i actually found one on Simply Recipies It was a post about how to make you own pumpkin puree, I already do that SO, i just needed a REAL recipe so i could take the milk out and opt in the almond milk I need to say My family has been just great trying out the new recipes and they told me that they could not even TELL that this pie didn't have real dairy in it. and its so good you will not have half a pumpkin pie sitting around for a week after Thursday, the above slice was from a 9 inch pie and it was gone before the pie was 12 hours old.... 

I know what you are thinking, HOW can that be dairy free with that great big glob of whipped cream on top? That rich creamy melting glob of yumminess is NOT Cow's cream! its made from coconut milk. and i will post more about that tomorrow.... 

Suzanne’s Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Converted to dairy free

Cook time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of pumpkin pulp purée from a sugar pumpkin* or from canned pumpkin purée

1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs plus the yolk of a third egg

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon

1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

1 good crust 

Graham cookies

Matthew loves teddy graham crackers, but they have milk in them. RECENTLY i found some that did not, although they said they contained trace dairy. so we thought we would try them.  three days (and 15 bunnies) later we are back to a full blown reaction. So i went on the look for a recipe i can convert... and it was found!

I only made 1/4 of a batch to see how it turned out, and i didn't want a bazillion teddies... my next issue was i didnt have fancy little cutters i want Matt to feel like hes doesn't have bunnies or teddies or what ever i didn't want just plain crackers i wanted SHAPES!

So i got to talking to Tesha... she said you need a cookie cutter! a little bunnie cookie cutter.  well she agreed to come over and give me a hand with things so i could accomplish some things.

in the kids Play-dough things we found some  presses from the sesame street set I had. All with numbers from 1 to 10.... they were about the right size too i also found small cookie cutters  of tractors and bunnies and other small things to use when i make a BIG batch

we scooped out a tiny bit and then stamped them with the letters the entire 1/4 batch fit on one cookie sheet.

after baking them this is how they turned out. they puffed more than normal grahams but the taste was amazing!

Honey graham crackers
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup regular flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup of earth balance margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup of honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup almond milk

the original recipe says to refrigerate the dough over night  and roll out the dough as you would sugar cookies. i didn't bother as i was doing drop and stamp.
bake at 350 just like cookies

Green tomato relish

My mother in law makes the best zucchini relish. and i ran out of it last winter. But we didnt get any really nice in the garden, SO this year i had so many green tomatoes I had to see if i could find a relish recipe near to hers.

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that was close. here is what i found.
what i did differently was i used all green peppers. Steve says its really good.

BBQ sauce

when harvesting my tomatoes i had some that were "half ripe" so i popped them into my 6 quart crockpot and cooked them down....

after running them through the food mill i gave the sauce a try..  pretty tart for spaghetti sauce.... not gonna work.... what to do with it now? Well Matt Cant have BBQ sauce except one brand so why not try it? so here's what i threw together, My family, who all love BBQ chicken say this is a win.


BBQ SAUCE

3 quarts of sauce
1/2 a bag of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of liquid smoke
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt to taste

Green Tomato Jam

I haven't been blogging lately and im sorry, I have been busy making everything i could think of with my green tomatoes.

This is green tomato jam. Sounds weird? well yea a little. but really good.
heres how i did it....

i filled my 5 quart crock pot and cooked green tomatoes down in it twice. this took two days and it reduced both 5 quart batches to 1/4 of the amount so i only got maybe 3 quarts of cooked down tomatoes . then i ran them through my food mill. it was thick like a weird greenish brown spaghetti sauce.... and i added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 a teaspoon of cardimum and three cups of sugar. I cooked it for another 8 hours or so

its tastes like a jam or a butter, but you get you mind saying wait is that tomatoes? yes i think it is... out of those approx 10 quarts i got 5 jars this size ... not a huge yield BUT very good and better than throwing them out...

Black Magic cake

this is by far the BEST chocolate cake i have EVER eaten!

IT is 100% Matt friendly and "hormonal mommy approved"

I substituted Matt's rice milk and specialty butter in the original recipe. You can of course use cow products if you want to.  I think if you used whole milk and real butter this would be even richer but i dont really think it needs to be. its plenty rich. I also think if you wanted to used plain water instead of rice milk it would also work just as nicely. I really wish i had this back three months ago, it would have been an awesome first cake MUCH moister than his original birthday cake. i also think this would be phenom with a peanut butter frosting!



2 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
3/4 cups of cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee cooled
1 cup rice milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting
1/2 c specialty Dairy&Soy free butter
1/4 c cocoa
3 c powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
enough rice milk to make it creamy (3+ tablespoons)

be aware the batter will be thin....

bake at 350 until done

BUTTER!

My daughter found this amazing product! its used by many people that are dairy/soy intolerant. (i've found a few parents) this stuff tastes like butter, but its not.

I am going to attempt to try this out today in a cake, i only need 1/2 a cup (in the frosting) so that wont use a lot

we've also been told by our GI specialist that we can cook with rice milk. I know that Matt can handle rice as hes had rice cereal for ages. so we picked up some of that as well. so this will be going into my cake also. Matt isnt allowed to drink it, i think if he were to drink it he would stop wanting his formula as its very sweet. perfect for cakes and things like that.

Zucchini cookies

this is a shameful post. well some may say shameful some may say GENIUS.  I made that zucchini bread and to make these cookies you kinda have too.  well dont use all the batter, I made a double batch, (4 loaves) and only baked 3... that last loaf add an extra cup of flour to it. then using a scoop, plop the dough into cinnamon and sugar and roll it around and bake.  the poof up and are cake like. you may want to take them out slightly before htey are done so they arent too dry.  if you screw up add a slice of store bought white bread to it. the cookies will suck up the moisture from the bread.

my family really liked these although they both said it needed to have something and chocolate chips seemed to be the universal choice.  HOWEVER Matty cant have chocolate chips.. (dairy) so we had them plain.

Someone try it out and let me know if they are as awesome with chocolate chips as i think they will be.

zucchini bread

I have been reading my favorite cookbook, the 1992 PA grange cook book also know by those of us that have grange books as "the green book" looking for recipes i can still make but that Matt can enjoy.

and i happily found my zucchini bread recipe!

nomm nomm

SOOO ive got some in the oven as i type this! well by the time i post this it will be out so i can take a picture of it but i digress...

3 eggs beaten
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of oil (canola)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
3 teaspoon cinnamon
and my own personal addition....
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

you can add nuts if you want to, Michelle says that it isn't right till there's nuts in it but frankly i don't like nuts in anything....

anywho... so  two loaf pans greased and floured or greased and sugared ( i like it sugared) bake at 350 for 1 hour and toothpic test them!

Dairy soy Free bread

Matt loves bread. My favorite food is sandwiches. I can put ANYTHING between two slices of bread and eat it. I have even been known to take a bread stuffing and make that into a sandwich yea so a bread sandwich made with bread.  I guess Matt comes by his love for bread naturally.  HOWEVER, I feel like a heel eating a sandwich in from of Matt and not letting him try it when he asks so I spend my time eating in hiding.  Not a good thing so I set out to make a new bread recipe. One with no dairy in it.

I want to say right now, this isn't 100% soy free,  I have greased the bread pans with Crisco. Which is made of soy oil.  Matt doesn't eat the crust so I think its OK for our use.  I think you could also use canola oil instead. I did it more out of habit.  Gotta work on those habits....

Before I get into the recipe, do yourself a favor if you are going to make bread on any real scale get this product! I know what you are thinking HOLY COW its a POUND! yea it is. best investment ever. My local bulk store carries this for an amazing price of under $5 the last time I bought three packets of yeast it was nearly that much.  This is what we used at the pizza joint I worked at.  Then I found it in the store and went WELL THEN.  It is vacuum packed in a brick.  I used an old 'country time' container to keep it in (that's what we used at work too)  and I keep it in the fridge and replace it every spring. What ever is left over I flush down my septic system, same thing as Rid X.   I want you to make certain of is that your yeast is INSTANT. (AKA bread machine yeast) this doesn't need to be re-hydrated and you can mix it in dry. None of that "is my water too warm or too cold?" However if you don't the correct temp would be 100 deg. and USE a thermometer!

NOW on with the show!

 put these indigence in the bowl in this order...

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg beaten
1 tab salt
2 3/4 cups warm water (not cool but not hot) at this point as long as its NOT HOT is all that matters....

mix all this together then add 10 (or so) cups of flour I normally start adding flour and getting it mixed in with a wisk until it gets a tid bit sticky then I change to a spoon, finally I put the last cup on my counter and knead it in...

knead untill you bet a spring back response
(like on a foam mattress)

...this was the hardest part for me to learn. I never kneaded it long enough. So I ended up with BIG holes and my bread wasn't very dense. It fell apart when I sliced it, and most of all, it would FALL when I baked it. The more I kneaded my bread the better I liked how it came out. I stop when I push on a dough ball and my finger prints spring back.

Tuck that ball into bed

Oil a fresh bowl and put your dough ball into the oil top down. flip it over, and now you have a completely oiled doughball. Cover with a tea towel (non terry cloth) I have ONE that I use over and over again. because it gets kinda infused with the oil.  I don't even try to get the oil out anymore, I just think of this as my bread towel.

 cut into three equal pieces and put into pans

after your bread rises in the pans to nearly the tops of the pan. Turn your oven on to 425 degrees and put the bread in RIGHT THEN. when your oven has preheated to the 425, turn it back to 350 to finish the baking.  I find this makes a nice chewy crust, its not all hard and nasty.

Cool on their sides 

this is the hardest part for me.. letting it cool without cutting into it and eating 1/2 a loaf before the family realizes you baked bread... Today bread was out of the oven at 3:30 First loaf gone by 9:30... But what a satisfying food:)

Isn't that a nice loaf?

If you try this and it doesnt come out on the first try dont give up, (after all you have all that yeast) Keep trying. our grandmothers made bread every week and how AWESOME was grandmas bread? yea how you think it got that way? PRACTICE! My bread used to SUCK EGGS its way better now i am truly getting the ahng of it and i make mine one a week I went almost a year without making it and once again i had to RE teach myself. very worth it. and even if your bread is "a brick" as we used to call bread that didnt turn out well or fell, it still makes great croutons, stuffing, bread crumbs, french toast, you CAN find use for it. and its the FLAVOR when you start the texture comes with practice. Dont give up.

Chocolate Cookies

the first recipe i have tweaked was a basic brownie recipe from my "Green" PA grange book. I made brownies into cookies....


.

Brownie cookies

Dairy free Soy free Brownie Cookies
1 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup baking cocoa
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda

use a scoop to control portion and roll in sugar to form a soft ball. bake in 350deg oven till desired doneness.


*TIP....
mixture will be "sticky" and you may think "Needs more flour" dont do it! it will make the cookies hard as bullets.

if you want brownie like chewy cookies take them out while still soft they are scrumptious! if they bake a bit longer they get crisp and make excellent dunkers!

YUMMY YUMMY!

 These are not only Matty approved, but also requested by my daughter as a cookie to be made when her company comes later in the summer! so not only approved by my daughter but "company acceptable"

Steve and i were in a bulk food store the other day and he wanted a package of granola. in the 12 years we have been married i have NEVER seen him eat granola. My daughter and i are HUGE on flake cereal with granola bits. we have also bought a box of granola and mixed it with a flake cereal long story short we eat granola... but Steve never touches it. well, after finding out he LOVES it but never thinks of it.... I went hunting a granola recipe.

Let me tell you, Pour some warmed milk over this for a toasty breakfast on a COLD morning. and get all warmed up inside!

Crunchy Homemade Granola

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup Canola Oil
• 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 (6-ounce) package dried sweetened cranberries or other dried fruits such as cherries, raisins, pineapple, or papaya

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 300º. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, wheat germ, nuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
   
2. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the oil, honey, and water. Toss the mixture until the ingredients are well combined, then spread it evenly on a cookie sheet.
   
3. Bake the granola for 40 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring every 10 minutes to keep the mixture from sticking. Let it cool completely, then stir in the cranberries or dried fruit. Makes about 7 cups.
   

Potato Candy????

My Aunt Eleanor (my father's brothers wife) is a fantastic cook I like to think i take after her, But i know that's only in spirit and in her recipes! This is a candy she would make at Christmas time, but the recipe was lost. I recently found one online that SOUNDED very much like hers. and i just HAD to try it!

Sure enough it was JUST how I remembered it!

I thought i would put it down here for anyone who would like to enjoy it as it is a VERY old recipe and many peoples grandmothers used to make it and people forget about it.

I missed the make two rolls part and i don't think mine was thin enough.... but for a first try I think i did OK.

IRISH POTATO CANDY

2 (1 lb.) boxes powdered sugar
1/2 c. hot mashed potatoes, drained
1 sm. jar crunchy peanut butter

Mix sifted sugar into potatoes a little at a time by hand. (Don't panic when potatoes liquify as the first sugar is added. This is what it's supposed to do. Just keep adding sugar until it is pastry consistency.) Sprinkle wax paper with additional powdered sugar. Take baseball-sized ball of mixture and roll out like pastry. Spread with peanut butter and roll like a jelly roll. Wrap rolls in plastic wrap; chill and slice.
Makes 2 rolls.

Thsi is dairy free/ soy free if you use a soy free peanut butter!