Food Magic

Like the effects of a bad high-school rumor, coconut oil came out of the 80′s with a horrendous reputation.  Demonized for its saturated fat content, you’d have thought that every heart attack began with tub of coconut oil and a spoon.  The clarification that I believe went unnoticed was the difference between organic, unrefined coconut oil and the highly refined hydrogenated version.  The media is beginning to scrub the graffiti from poor coconut oil’s locker, touting the possible connection between unrefined coconut and heart health, but there’s another beautiful story about the positive effects of coconut oil that has thus far, gone largely unnoticed.  And folks, it could be huge.  Here’s why…

A total thief.

One egg short for my Mango Coconut Milk Ice Cream... my feet burn on the hot bricks as I cross the path towards the quiet coop.  Out for the day, their clucking and leaf shuffling sits on the edge of ear-shot, so I slip confidently past the open door.  One nest sits empty, two empty… shoot. Last nest, there she sits, our broody hen.  Not only is she broody, but our roosters are little banyan fellas, which are miniature.  Cute, but they don’t seem to have the logistical height necessary to be effective.  Meaning, a little short for our tall, sexy hens… if you get my drift.  So, she sits all day to no avail.  Poor lady.

The best kind of gift.

A few weeks back, a team of guys came and picked the lemons from our orchard.  This harvest will happen about two to three times a year for lemons, which produce pretty much year round.  Our foreman Raul highly recommended the contractor who picked lemons for the previous owner of the farm, so I called up Simon and ended up feeling very satisfied with the results.  Not to mention that the very last day of picking, I answered a knock at the door from Simon, who was grinning and holding an entire flat of the most delicious strawberries you’ve ever tasted.  Too many for my small family to eat, we took some up to Raul, but he said no.  Simon had brought him a flat, too.  Smart man because I now think of strawberries when I think of Simon, and that’s one happy association.

No fa-la-la’s.

Have we had enough cookies lately? I’m gonna go ahead and assume the answer is yes, actually YES. Respectfully, I decided not to drown you with red & green in this picture. No fa-la-la’s. No mistletoe. I went for a more year-round color scheme. That way, if the thought of another cookie repels you like a pair of like magnets, return in May and without feeling the need to share with Santa. However if you, like my husband, don’t mind a cookie, after a whole lot of cookies. Knock yourself out, cause these are good.

Hot summer days.

Watermelons can have yellow guts, too! A peculiar yellow melon made me a big hit with our good friends the Dikos’s who were in town last week from Baltimore. Little Mia thought it looked like a pineapple, but couldn’t get over the fact that it tasted “just like watermelon!” Once they took off for the Grand Canyon, I used my leftover melon to experiment on a recipe headed for Farm to Table.

A clear white cone of nothing.

A rather self-confident vegetable.

Farm to Table recipe #2 – I’m humming along! Possibly obviously, this recipe is heading for the Carrot Episode. Having entered the kitchen with a clear mental picture and a sketched out recipe, I focused on mom’s old Vanilla Cornstarch Pudding recipe with the addition of a light creamy orange hue, imparted by fresh-squeezed carrot juice, maybe a few toasted almond slices on top. My milk would be raw and rich maple crystals would replace the dreaded white sugar. Lastly, I switched the namesake cornstarch to arrowroot, mainly for nutritional reasons. Cornstarch, always a refined product, is rather void of minerals, whereas arrowroot, naturally unrefined, is a starch obtained from the root of a tropical plant that is chock full of calcium, plus rich minerals of the sea. In addition, arrowroot digests well and actually soothes the stomach, whereas, corn allergies run rampant these days.

New additions.

This blog is a celebration! In case you haven’t been by lately, the last two blogs were “homework” entries, of sorts. We learned how to make Sprouted Flour, in preparation for these quick & satisfying cookies. Well, job well done, and now’s the time! This cookie is a new addition to my household, and I am excited to share them with you. They are truly delicious.

The color of crack.

Last year, I went to our neighborhood Halloween party as a Martian. Neon green body pain and all. I’m fully certain the body paint was the polar opposite of organic. My post-party shower lasted a solid hour before crawling into bed exhausted with raw speckled green skin. This year, I’m going to be a tree. The thought came to me late one night. Settled in bed, my eyes flew open and I proceeded to be as annoying as possible with, “John (shake, shake, shake), John (tap, tap, tap)…  I think I’m going to be a tree.” He’s not certain a girl of 31 should be dressing up in the first place, but he liked the idea.