Olivia's Cake (cane sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free, lactose- and almost dairy-free)

Today is a good day for cake.  So thinks Olivia, especially when it involves cracking eggs.  So think I.  But I always think that.

We've got this great cookbook from Nathan's grandmother, Janice Sampson Nesbit, called "The American Woman's Cookbook"

It's brilliant. Especially as it's bound with duct tape.  It even tells you how to set the table properly, which is, honestly, probably my favorite chapter.  It even has diagrams.

Anyhow, we decided on a Plain Cake, since we didn't have much going for us in the way of pantry supplies.  And of course we needed to adapt the recipe, what with all of our sensitivities (there are four "i"s in that word).

Here's what it said:

Here's what we did:

1 1/2 cups almond meal
2 teaspoons baking soda
something approximating 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used my palm)
1/3+ cup butter (I always add a bit more, since I love butter), melted  You could also probably use oil, if you're going for the vegan look.
3/4 cup maple sugar (which is like maple syrup, only more expensive, as it has all the water removed)
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened)

Mix it all up.  When you add the eggs, mix a lot, since if you've just added the butter, there's a chance they might cook a bit.

Bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Eat it up.

We're hodge-podge cookers here, but it usually tastes pretty good.  At least it looks purty:

Our yummy cake, served with a bit of maple syrup-sweetened goat yogurt.  Mmm!!

Reduce, Reuse...

RECYCLE.

Good lord, there are so many bags of recyclables on our back porch, it's crazy.  Don't tell our landlord.

Jumbled as it may look, there IS a rhyme and reason to this mess - each recyclable is sorted by type - each number of plastic even has its own bag.

Our trash experiment went really well.  By simply sorting our waste into three basic categories: recyclable, biodegradable, and none of the above (a.k.a. trash), we were actually able to not take the trash out for three weeks.  Imagine that.

We stored our compost in a bucket between our back and screen door - out of the house so not to stink, and away from animals (as if any would even want to come up the three flights of stairs to eat anything in the first place).  It didn't even really smell, and the only nasty bit was emptying the bucket afterwards.

So many things are biodegradable!!

The largest pile by far was the recyclable one.  The compost was the heaviest (most of it was inedible things, like peels - don't be thrown off by the left-out squash sautee on top...) and the trash trash the least in volume and mass.

I challenge you to try this for a week and see what you come up with.  You may get a little more hands-on with your waste, but you dealt it, so smelt it.