Flourless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Flourless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Mmm, these sound just scrumptious. I love that figs and sunflower butter are used to bind everything together.

Flourless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen medium cookies

1.5 tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread 
1/4 cup fig butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sunflower butter (or peanut butter)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg 
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups gluten-free oats
5 tbsp. unsalted roasted sunflower seeds
3/4 - 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whip together the Earth Balance, fig butter, and white and brown sugar until well-mixed.  Add the egg and mix together well.  Add in the sunflower butter or peanut butter (depending on your own taste/tolerance) and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, and salt.  Stir them into the wet ingredients and mix well.  Add the sunflower seeds and chocolate chips and stir in to combine.

Scoop the cookies out by the teaspoonful or tablespoonful onto the cookie sheets and space 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes (JUST until they start to brown on the edges), then remove from the oven.  They probably won't look completely done - that's ok.  Let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for another 3 - 5 minutes or until you can scrape them off onto a wire rack without their falling apart.  Cool completely, then store in an airtight container until ready to serve.


Originally posted at:
http://www.thisglutenfreelife.org/2011/10/flourless-chocolate-chip-oatmeal.html

Upper Valley Localvores: Maple-Applesauce-Carrot-Walnut Muffins

I am absolutely loving following the posts of UVLocalvores. It's great to hear about who's selling what at the local farmers' markets, and wonderful recipes shared, as well! I have a ton of carrots from Fable Farm in Barnard, as well as a bucket of walnuts left over from my own summer farmers' market products, so the following recipe from UVLocalvores is perfect! I'll substitute GF flour to make the muffins edible by the spouse.

Maple-Applesauce-Carrot-Walnut Muffins

(Recipe from http://ecoike.blogspot.com/2011/03/applesauce-carrot-walnut-muffins.html)

1 cup flour (I used Butterworks organic whole wheat bread flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 local organic egg
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup organic applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil* or olive oil (I was leery of olive oil but it was fine!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup local organic carrots, shredded
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup organic raisins (or cranberries?)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour 18 mini muffin cups. (Hmmm – I did a half recipe; it made a dozen mini muffins.)

In a mixing bowl; mix the egg and maple syrup together. Add the apple sauce, oil and vanilla. Mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add the flour ingredients to the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Add the carrots, walnuts and raisins. Mix just until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared mini muffin cups.

Bake for 11 minutes at 400 Degrees.

Our Favorite Mojito Recipe

Cuban Mojito recipethe original authentic recipe from Havana Cuba
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves
1 sprig of mint
Havana Club white Rum (2 ounces)
2 ounces club soda

 

There are countless recipes for the Mojito (pronounced moh-HEE-toh), but this version is for the one Hemingway himself enjoyed at the Mojito's place of birth: La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba. If you are throwing a Cuban theme party (Havana night themed party), definitely plan on serving mojitos.

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a "collins" glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. You'll want about two ounces of lime juice, so it may not require all of the juice from a single lime.

Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden device pictured below, though you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if one isn't available). Add ice (preferably crushed) then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda (you can also stir the club soda in as per your taste). Garnish with a mint sprig.

From: Taste of Cuba

(SERIAL)KILLER PUMPKIN MASH

OK, this recipe post is from a few years ago, but I thought I'd put it up again since Halloween is coming up and we are planning a pumpkin-carving party for this weekend. Enjoy, mwahahahahhah!

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We live off the beaten path in a development peopled mostly by retirees, so we don’t get trick-or-treaters.  But I love Halloween and dressing up and doing spooky stuff. So, even though it was a work night and we’d gotten our official Halloween party-going done the weekend before, I decided I still had to make a night of it. I dressed up in black, lit some candles, turned on Bach’s Toccata and Fugue, and set about cooking up something really grisly!

What transpired (“expired”!?) was our first ever Pumpkin Dismemberment Party and the invention of “(SERIAL)KILLER” PUMPKIN MASH. (We've been working our way through the first season of "Dexter" on Netflix...)

We lovingly created Smokin’ Jack, our angry little jack-o-lantern, tried (and failed) to set him on fire (we didn’t realize both the food and the alcohol had to be hot for flambéing), cooked him, dismembered him, mashed him, and later ate him while watching our next “Dexter” DVD. Heh.

This recipe will work well for Thanksgiving, too. Stressed out at the idea of having to dine with family? Buy a half dozen pie pumpkins and vent your frustrations while making your very own “KILLER” PUMPKIN MASH! Just think how fun it will be to carve a pumpkin that looks just like your annoying weasel of a brother…and how satisfying to gut, burn, dismember, and pulp the insufferable little bugger! By the time your family Turkey Day celebration gets into full swing, you’ll have blown off all that steam. Plus, you’ll get to cackle maniacally as you dish out a dollop of your delicious evil-doing to each member of your family…

Haha. Well, enough of that. Here’s the “recipe. “ Be forewarned, I made this up as I went, so the amounts are only estimates. If you are doing this with kids, PLEASE skip the fire part!!

mashed pumpkin from 1 medium pie pumpkin

¾ -1 cup whole milk (use  ½ and ½ or cream for a richer taste)

¼ cup B grade maple syrup (the real stuff!)

¼ cup salted margarine or butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

toasted slivered almonds

dark brown sugar

spiced rum

1.       Cover your entire kitchen (except the stove and other hot bits) in plastic wrap and sheeting, ala “Dexter”. This makes for easy cleaning, but is not very environmentally friendly. If you are concerned about the environment, buy that plastic stuff that’s made out of wheat field stubble or corn cellulose or whatever. (Lots of handy products for the eco-minded squash killer can be found in the reference section of this blog…)

2.       Draw your face of choice on your victim, AKA “a medium pie pumpkin”.

3.       Carefully insert a sturdy knife into the top (“stem side”) of the victim’s head, cutting out a round section.

4.        Scoop guts (brains?) out and set aside. (Use for pumpkin seed snacks or compost. The worms in my two worm composting bins just love squash guts.)

5.       Carve your victim’s face. Show no mercy - all pumpkins deserve ultimate pain and terror! Hahahahahahah!!! Die, pumpkins, die!!!!! Erhem…

6.       Preheat oven to 375°F. Set the carved and bleeding victim on a tray. Give a nice little tour of the baking facilities while taunting and telling how the victim’s just won a visit to your primo tanning bed…oil the cavity inside the victim’s hollow carved head with the veg oil and…

7.       Bake victim for about 1½  hours. Victim is “done” when he starts slumping dejectedly and looks slightly charred on top. When poked with a fork, victim should feel squishy. (After the first 45 minutes, check pumpkin for doneness every 15 minutes. Depending on the size of your oven, stature of your pumpkin, and amount of flesh you’ve carved away, the pumpkin may need more or less time to cook.)

8.       Take victim outside while still smokin’ hot. Set on a fire-proof surface.  Follow instructions for flambéing, such as those provided by Food24. Pour flaming alcohol into the carved-out cavity and STEP BACK. Victim should burn for a few minutes, nicely searing flesh inside to a golden brown. Clap a lid over the victim before he’s charred into a pun’kin-puck.

9.       (Optional: if you can’t get your pumpkin to light, just go on to the next step. Then put the dismembered pieces back in the oven on an oiled tray - flesh side down - and bake for another 20 minutes.)

10.   Allow victim to cool in the night air for several minutes. Just when the victim starts beginning to think he might get out of this alive, haul him back inside and quickly hack him into pieces with a cleaver or large carving knife. Cackling insanely all the while, of course.

11.   Peel skin from cooked, dismembered flesh. Put flesh in a large mixing bowl and violently mash to an even consistency. This part is very satisfying! Just try not to break any crockery, cooking implements, or countertops with the force of your blows.

12.   Add butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix wildly, spattering bits of flesh all over your carefully plastic-wrapped kitchen.

13.   Add maple syrup and milk. Fling more mashed flesh around - though not too much, or you won’t have enough for later.

14.   Scoop resulting pumpkin pulp into individual serving bowls.

15.   Garnish with a generous splash of spiced rum, dark brown sugar, and slivered almonds.

16.   Serve to your horrified family/friends/housemates.

17.   Eat the evidence!