Probably not the best time to post about food...

...but an online recipe got me thinking about wild rice, which is a delicious native grain (and is not actually rice).  Yum and yum!

The important point to note when buying wild rice is whether or not it was harvested by hand.  Wild rice is a sacred food to the Ojibwa and other First Nations, and there are laws in Wisconsin & Minnesota, where much wild rice grows, that prohibit mechanical harvesting of wild rice.  This not only ensures the propagation of this water grass, but also respects the First Nations claims, which we are all about supporting.

Fortunately there are some companies (like Eden), which do support tribal communities. It is true that this wild rice is more expensive, but the cost is well worth the quality and the social justice. Yum!


Our favorite recipe is a knock-off of one shared by a friend from the Lac du Flambeau Nation. Originally, it uses venison, but we can’t really get much of that here in the city, so we’ve substituted ground bison. Beef works well, too. I usually just throw all the bits in, so it’s really a very easy recipe, but I’ve spelled it out here, so it’s more recipe-ish:

Bison & Wild Rice Soup

3 T olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 lb. ground bison (or venison! or beef)
1 cup wild rice
Several cups of water
1 bunch curly kale (or really any other green), stems removed & leaves chopped
Sea Salt to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium-high in a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add the onions and saute until translucent.

Add the ground meat and some salt (about 1 T) and stir until it is well broken-up. Cook until it is browned.

Add the rice and water – basically, you will want to make sure the rice is covered with the water, and then some. One the water boils, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer.

Check periodically to make sure you have enough water.

We let it cook for about 30 minutes, but sometimes it may take longer. Five to ten minutes before removing from heat, add the chopped kale.

Add more salt & pepper to taste. Yum!

Tasty Treats - Gluten-Free Ginger Snaps

I love sweets.  Have I mentioned this before?  And the winter is a great time to bake.  So I've had to make some modifications to some of my favorite treats.

We tried this one tonite, and it's great.  This is modified from a Pamela's Products recipe.  I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I modified a few.  But the most important part is in the preparation.  I've put all that business in bold. 

To be fair, I'm a slacker baker.  I hardly sift thrice (or even once), so when it comes to prep, I think you should be able to throw all of the ingredients together and pop it in the oven.  So I've made these as simple as possible.

Gluten-free, Cane Sugar-free Ginger Snaps

2 & 1/4 cups of Gluten-Free Flour (I used Whole Foods 365 mix)

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard  (or 1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard)
1 teaspoon baking soda

1-3/4 sticks cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup maple sugar + 1/4 cup maple syrup (substitute for brown sugar)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (substitute for molasses)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine flour with salt, baking soda, spices and mustard (unless you are using prepared mustard, which is wet - add that in with the brown rice syrup). Whisk together thoroughly and set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream butter with sugar & maple syrup.  Add egg, mix to incorporate.  Add brown rice syrup, mix to incorporate.  Add vanilla.  Add dry ingredients, mix to incorporate.

Refrigerate for one hour to chill.

Using parchment paper on baking sheets, spoon 1/2 teaspoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheet.  You can get between 12-15 on a sheet, but this spreads really easily, so 12 is a safe measure (3x4 rows).

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 6 to 8 minutes until browned on the edges and the middle does not look wet.  Remove immediately from oven and quickly remove the parchment paper (with cookies still on it) to a counter, so that the cookies stop cooking from the heat of the baking sheet, but still retain their shape.  Do not touch or attempt to move cookies for at least 5 minutes, as they will crumble if they are not cool enough.

Once the cookies are cool, they will be cute little ginger snaps.  There is enough here for at least a week, depending on how quickly you eat your cookies.  Mmm...

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!!

Applesauce!

So I've made my first batch of applesauce - and I've canned it - in jars...  Hmm... that's a silly juxtaposition.

This is my first shot at this sort of thing, as I'm usually more of an instant-gratification chef - with tasty things like pies.  And crisps.  And more pies.

They are lovely and cooling on my windowsill.  And yes, there are only two.  Like I said, this is my first attempt.  I spilled about half a jar into the sink while I was filling it last night - man, applesauce can get hot - and then of course there was the fact that our dear organic apples were full of worms.  :(  We had to dump more than half of them into the wastebin...

Which leads me to my burning question - how much of an apple can you eat, if it's been invaded by little worms?

***

Here's our recipe for applesauce:

A bunch of apples, cored & sliced, but not peeled (I like the peel)
A big, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid
A stove

1. Turn on your stove to medium, put the pot on the burner, and add your apples
2. Once the pot is hot, and all the apples are in, turn the burner down to low
3. Simmer.  A LOT.  Stir occasionally.  We cooked ours all day long - maybe 3 hours total, but with lots of resting in between, as we had to go out to do errands.
   
4. Meanwhile, wash & rinse your jars & lids.  Our tap water is ridiculously hot, so we forwent (is that the past tense of "forgo"?) boiling the jars, although I probably should have, in order to kill all the bacteria.  Although I imagine we'll consume these jars pretty quickly.
5. Once your applesauce is nice and mushy, add it to your hot jars.  The jars have to be hot so they don't crack when you add the hot mixture.
6. Fill the jars to the top, leaving a bit of head room.  Smash the applesauce a bit throughout the jar with a spatula or spoon to get the air bubbles out.
7. Stick your lids on, and then screw the ring on.  I think at this point you are supposed to put them in a canner - although I don't know what that is.  I simply left them on the stove (since they were too hot of the counter) until they cooled enough to make a vacuum.  Then I cooled them overnight.

So we shall see how well they keep.  Any canning pointers?

Up next:  Apple pies!