Baby Shower Aftermath

As stated in one of my last posts (however briefly), life has been quite hectic in recent weeks. This seems to be a seasonal thing, as May is just wacky-packed full of family things. Which means a couple of things: I drop off the face of the blogging planet for a bit, and I get sick. :P

However, somewhere in the past two weeks, the baby shower I was talking up and preparing for with the use of Moon Munkie's goodies, finally came to pass. It was a pretty nice shower, I don't mind saying. Big, and full of people who adore my adorable sister-in-law.

Here's a visual review of some of the goodies that my family and I were able to pull together. My sister was in charge of the desserts, and my mom, cousins, and younger sister all helped me get all of my designated decoration projects done. I admittedly chose projects that would have better served a smaller shower (we made 80 favors and 80 pins, though I don't know that we needed to). Silly me. Fortunately, crafty hands run in the family and they all saved me from falling into a crafty wormhole of despair.

Shower cake courtesy of the family's favorite local bakery

Tulle instead of streamers.
I made a point NOT to make these tissue pompoms, but I did hang them with Moon Munkie yarn. 

Mini fruit tarts

The new and improved ivy banner, with little Moon Munkie flower accents

The favor envelopes

The envelope contents: seeds, quote, planting instructions

Family favorite: individual "Krispy Krespy" (Pistachio pudding, cream cheesy sweet stuff, whipped cream, and graham cracker crust. Not in that order.)

Sweetpea blossom pins from satin, tulle, and felt

Hanging flowers

Second hanging plant, used as prizes for the shower games

Individual pretzel salads

The dessert table; my brother, his wife, and they're pre-packaged bundle of joy. ;)

Ooops! Almost forgot to include my present for the wee 'un. Probably because I didn't take a decent picture of it, so tried to brush over it.

I made a quilt for my niece using my friend Eleanor Grosch's fabric that I mentioned ages ago:

I had thought I had gotten some better quality shots when my husband snuck a few in, but he deleted them because they weren't as good as I had thought. And with the rush to get the shower stuff and quilt done, I was just glad I could give it to her. :)

Guest Post at House of Pinheiro

One of the aspects of blogdom that I'm very intrigued by and still trying to figure out is the massively social and interactive nature among bloggers with common interests. Big community projects, sew-alongs, challenges, quilting bees, recipe sharing, giveaways, podcasts, overarching conversations on subjects we consider relevant, interblog collaborations: it's impressive to see how extensive social connections can be.

I feel like Rachelle at House of Pinheiro is a blogger who actively participates within this vast network with a purpose that I just can't seem to muster. It always feels like she's a key part in community conversations and looking to provide encouragement to fellow sewers, crafters, and cooks. I can always appreciate someone who loves such past-times as food and craft and creative endeavors. I can't seem to focus very well in terms of my interests at all, if you were to review the content of this blog.

But! Point is that I got a chance to collaborate with Rachelle this month, as she is having guest bloggers  provide posts for the month of January. Feel free to check out my (not candida diet) recipe for A-Z bread over at House of Pinheiro today, and explore her amazingly ambitious and productive blog.

Thanks, Rachelle!

Christmas Recap: Food Part II, Cakes

Holiday Food Post, No 2: Cakes

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My grandmother once told me that she used to get bibingka, a Filipino treat, following Mass on Christmas. I thought I would rock the nostalgia this year by making her some bibingka for our family gathering. I was able to get a recipe to try from Jun's blog. For those unfamiliar, bibingka is a sweet rice cake, with some salted eggs and/or cheese on top, which makes for a great balance of salt and sweet, in my opinion. Though, I suppose you should be warned that it helps to have a palate accustomed to Asian flavors before you chomp on salted duck eggs.

I kinda overdid the purchase of sweet/glutinous rice flour though. I'm likely going to be making  mochi for the rest of the year. If only I could eat most of the recipes I have found. I will probably try to make a me-safer version of bibingka, too, since I am pretty fond of it.

My grandmother also once told me that I am no longer allowed to come to family functions without cassava cake. So I made some. But I didn't photograph it. It tends to look like this, though (me-safer on the left, traditional on the right):

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And last, but certainly not least, I made a cinnamon bun/pecan roll cake, as posted during Gluten Free Easily's Home for the Holidays blogging extravaganza, by Cook It Allergy Free. I skipped the icing, as that required plain powdered sugar, and switched out the raisins for pecans instead. 

Halfway mark!

Buddy actually liked this cake, which says something about how good it is. It probably helps that I used coconut palm sugar instead of my usual sweeteners. So, this tasty cake is not quite me-safe, but it certainly is me-safer, and probably perfectly acceptable for me in moderation once I'm further along in my recovery. That hasn't stopped me from eating it, though.

I liked the look of the cake upside down

Hey. At least it's not shortbread.

Happy crumble

Christmas Recap: Food Part I, Ginger

Next up, food goodies I made for the holiday season. Unlike Thanksgiving, this seemed to be the season to make sweets. Some me-safe, some sorta-me-safe, and some absolutely dangerous. Dangerously delicious.

I was going to put all the food I made in one post, but it was a bit overwhelming. Instead, I've split it by themes: Ginger and Cake.

Holiday Food Post, No 1: Ginger

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Ginger Schnapps, a month in making. From the hugest piece of ginger I ever owned, and some vodka. Is it bad that I forgot the brand vodka?

Anyhow, it's gotten some rave reviews from those who've tried it, and has quite the flavor. I didn't even bother adding simple syrup. The ginger gives it a nice sweet without needing the added sugar.

I can't handle this Ging!

Ginger schnapps, in single serving sized jars

Next time, I am going to attempt to make some ginger gin schnapps. Throw that in with some sparkling water and lemon, or some tonic, and get the party started!

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My first batch of Buddy's family recipe for shortbread. Quite tasty! But soooo bad for me. I did sneak in a few bites off the edges, because it's so irresistible. Gave them out with honey or jam as small presents to all the family's families.

Delicious Shortbread

They don't have ginger in them, but they're not cakes, so we'll just describe them as ginger colored.

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Molasses crinkles, based off my cousin's provided recipe. I really like these too, but made them for folks who can eat them at my work cookie exchange. They're like soft gingersnaps. So the snap is just from the ginger, and not from the cookie's crunch.

Molassas Crinkles

Since I can't have the molasses crinkles, I thought I'd try Elana's Ginger Snaps recipe. Instead of honey, I substituted yacon syrup and glycerin. The yacon adds some nice molasses flavor to it, but I think I may have overdone it. Next time, just a T of yacon and a T of glycerin, instead of 2 T of yacon and .5 T glycerin. Worth trying as a recipe, though, as these cookies didn't last to the cookie exchange.

Right before the oven

Finished product

Holiday Eats

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

As some of you know, I have a number of food restrictions I try to observe for health reasons. So that makes holidays a tad complicated. I shouldn't have the mashed potatoes, the gravy made with flour, stuffing with gluten in it, much stuffing at all, even if gluten free, the green bean casserole, the cheesy broccoli, the cranberry sauce that looks like the can even when you take it out of the can, the cheese, the delicious looking rolls, the pies... the pies.

I didn't do too well on some things, but I think I did okay overall. I did sneak two small small pieces of pie on different days, a bite of mashed potatoes (which, at only one, is really quite amazing), ate the dairy and had some gravy. But not too much of anything overall.

I think my body suffered more from the stress I seem to impose upon myself during these holiday marathons than from the food I ate. But she behaved herself well enough overall, and recovered pretty darn quickly, I think. Maybe I'm simply making justifications because I want to think I'm doing better.

However, I thought I would share the recipes that I did actually make that were actually safe for me, if anyone wants to try them.

Cranberries are my best friends these days. They help balance my pH, reportedly, helping create a more alkaline environment that is less friendly to overly plentiful little nasties in my body. So, cranberry sauce is always a winner in my book. It's super simple: take fresh or frozen cranberries with a little water and cook 'em down. You want to cook them until the berries split. You can add stevia or your sweetener of choice to the amount of sweetness you prefer. I also add some orange flavoring to it, as I think oranges and cranberries to well together. If you have oranges lying around, I'm sure you could add some zest to the pot. After you let it cool for a bit, it thickens on its own. I like to put it straight in a jar, so that it seals itself as it cools.

Buddy is far more picky with his food preferences than I am. And by that, I mean that he generally will eat all the foods that I cannot eat and would prefer not to eat most of the food I can eat. My grandmother likes to describe that as manool (I know I just spelled that wrong). So, I use the holidays to actually make foods he won't eat but that I want to try.

To my uncle's, I brought the Sauteed Kale with Tahini Sauce, as posted by Simply Recipes:

I'd post my batch, but it got eaten. Source: Simply Recipes

The kale is always a good choice, in my book, and the tahini is something I can eat that carries a strong flavor and can really make things nice and creamy. The addition of garlic, onion and lemon are also beneficial for my little internal microbial wars. And beneficial for my palate as far as I'm concerned. I also think that it says something when a family member who hates kale noted he really liked it and kept eating it after realizing what it was.

For my dessert option, I brought some pumpkin muffins based off of Elena's Pantry recipe for paleo pumpkin bread. I had to whip one out to save my grandmother from herself, as she doesn't tolerate gluten well and my sister brought bowls of beautiful potato rolls to the feast. This recipe makes a nice moist muffin that counterbalances some of the salty flavor I usually pick up from almond flour based goodies. I switched out the honey for some veggie glycerine and yacon syrup, and yes, I know that butter is neither paleo nor candida diet appropriate. But it looks damn good with a pumpkin muffin.

For my mom's gathering, I brought Roasted Carrots and Parsnips by foodfarmhealth:

Buddy and I got there late, when everyone else had already eaten. I thought it was quite tasty, though I had wished I had stuck with the amount of shallots Shanon recommended. I put the whole shallot in, and was definitely overwhelmed by it. No one else really ate much of it, since they had already eaten by the time I brought it, but my immediate family isn't known for their love of such dishes. Not enough cheese, I think.

I didn't make this for the holiday meals, but just tried this Pumpkin Latte from Whole Approach's forum. Tasty! (Though perhaps too sweet for me with the two T of yacon syrup. Which means it's probably sweet enough for everyone else's preferences.)

Guest Posting at Lexie's Kitchen

One of the things that I have really enjoyed about my new endeavors in blogland is that I have become acquainted with a great set of supportive communities. There have been a few mentions here and there in the sewing blog spheres on how supportive the online community has been for a number of people. The same goes for the food/healthy eating blogosphere. I have gotten so much out of following a number of health minded folks with a span of dietary concerns and goals. I find myself starring posts on meals I want to try right after I marked a free online skirt pattern that I want to try. And just as the sewing community has sew-alongs, the food community has shown an equal interest in mutual support with "adopt-a-blogger" posts where a blogger chooses another blogger's recipes to make and enjoy (and share with the rest of us who may not be as familiar with their culinary goodies). It should come as no surprise with this amount of collaboration, that my starred list is quickly outrunning my calendar year in which to make things.

This is Lexie!

That being said, I am really excited to announce that I am officially contributing a piece to Lexie's "Making the Switch" series. Lexie from Lexie's Kitchen does a great job of reviewing just what you can make/cook/eat out there that is gluten and casein free (as well as free of other allergens). And she has made this commitment to healthy foods because of her family's health needs. You can read more about her experience here.

Because Lexie understands that it sometimes takes significant life events to bring us to a healthier lifestyle, she has asked others who have "made the switch" in their diets to share their stories.


She describes it this way on her blog:

Making the Switch, spotlights everyday people journeying on to better health and well-being by choosing pure food over processed. For some, it has been gradual. For others it was a complete about-face. 

Putting the modified diet focus of this blog aside, Making the Switch is open to all. The point being to bring personal stories to light that encourage young and old to get back into the kitchen to cook real food. As Jamie Oliver puts it, “make only a few small changes and magical things will happen.” Whether it’s weight loss, improvements in a child's behavior or the regaining of health, magical things will happen.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY? Consider being featured onMaking the Switch! Click here and drop me a line telling me a little about yourself. Someone is waiting to be inspired by YOU!

Any college students out there? We'd love to hear from you?

Today, I get to share my story! I hope you'll go and check it out!

Ginger Mint Lemonade

One of the things I find I do when I plan parties is I get crazy excited about the menu and make plans to make too many things all at once. With my recent birthday brunch, I ended up having a whole stash of supplies on things that I never made. Take this ginger and these lemons and this here mint. Sparkling ginger lemonade and mint iced tea, or ginger-mint tea, or mint lemonade, or... (that ellipses really does mean I'm still going on and on and on).

A week later, I still hadn't used them. But I had plans for them, because they just seemed as though they should go together. Don't they?

I can't say that this is the final version. Unlike more serious foodie blogs, I really don't care to try out recipes over and over until it's perfected before I tell you about it. I am more of an idea girl. Let's give it a go and see what happens, right?

Besides, I didn't really do the work on the recipe here. I got the main proportions off of this recipe. It had the most ginger to mint ratio compared to the others I read, and I love me some ginger.

Instead of the honey, though, I added a tablespoon of vegetable glycerin. It's got a nice mild sweet to it, that even Buddy likes, and I can add a little more bite with a drop or two of stevia. But I don't need it, really. It's pretty good as is. And Buddy and I like us a tart lemonade. I do miss some of that honey tang though. Like so many sweet things, it feels like there's no substitution for that kind of nuance. Well, not with the sweeteners I use. There is this or this kinda sweetener, made with sugar alcohols, but it's not recommended for my diet. But I may try it out one day. Maybe.

In the meantime, I have me a nice mellow refreshing drink to keep me cool. Lovely.

Crafty Brunch

No sewing completed this holiday weekend, folks. Nor any done the week prior. I was busy getting ready for a brunch I had with local family and friends.

I thought I'd show you how I procrastinated on cleaning and actual food planning:

There's quite a few tutorials online for these paper flowers, and I had some bright tissue paper leftover from a gift package earlier this year. It was a perfect thing to make while watching Avatar episodes. Yes, I watch Avatar, the Last Airbender. I'm a dork, but I think many a child and preteen would agree with my entertainment preferences. Well, in this case anyway. Like I told my Buddy, I think in primary colors, when it comes to entertainment.

I also used my couch potato time to use up my stash of toilet paper rolls. Sounds glamorous, right? I'm actually hoping to use these flowers to make something more substantial for a wall decoration. Along the lines of this or this.  In the meantime, I used our only spray paint, which happened to be only red, to make them seem more spring-y and vibrant than plain old cardboard. I then tried to make little multi-color tissue flowers/pompons to make it seem less like a Christmas decoration. Buddy pointed out, oh so kindly, that the flowers reminded him of tissues when you get a bloody nose. Ouch. But, I think the end result was cute, and matched my green, cream, and red enamel top table.

The amount of food involved, in large part to my guests and particularly my mother (generous with food and treats to a fault!), was monstrous! I did try to keep the food I made to generally me-friendly stuff, assuming that other folks would bring their preferred treats. We made a couple Spanish tortillas, asparagus, crepes with associated sweet and savory toppings, buckwheat pancakes, sausages, veggie sausage, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, oj, and yogurt. My mom brought locally made scrapple, longanisa (the Filipino version of this sausage, which is sweet and spicy), rice, more eggs, lemonade, more fruit, more yogurt, cake, croissants, and I'm sure about five other things I was too preoccupied to notice. Other folks brought quiches (one of which had a hashbrown crust), a fritatta, salmon (tandoori-style and lox), bread (homemade cinnamon raison bread FTW!), mimosa cupcakes, honey-buns (Buddy has a full box-worth of those now), chips, and I could probably go on even longer.  I even was made my own candida diet safe lemon meringue pie, of which I think I had four slices!! (Thanks Libby!) And it didn't even take into account all the things I intended to make but didn't need to, or those things that my mom brought but didn't make. It. Was. Amazing. and Delish.

I was particularly excited about the buckwheat pancakes, as I had made some rhubarb-strawberry compote.  I used this recipe, as it's super friendly for my needs, and was very fluffy and mild (since buckwheat can be pretty heavy).  The compote was quite easy, and there have also been a post or two on it elsewhere since it is officially rhubarb and strawberry season. I have a LOT left, so I'm contemplating making rhubarb-strawberry-yogurt popsicles for myself this summer.

The party was, in truth, a birthday brunch. Birthdays are a convenient excuse to have people come over simply for your sake, I think. I love it when people visit me, because it satisfies my social needs while still catering to my homebody tendencies. I'm a sociable introvert, or somesuch. Because I like having everyone come over, I tried to limit myself to my peer group within the extended family, my immediate family, Buddy's mom, and friends who live within an hour drive's radius. I think about 20-some folks came, though I haven't made a full tally yet. If I invited everyone... I wouldn't have had a place to stand!

Even though I have these events just to have people around that I like, people sometimes think that they should bring birthday presents. I certainly don't mind, I just don't know if they realize they don't have to do that. I'm just happy they came by. Either way, I would like to at least comment on the handmade/craft oriented gifts I received. (I also received a kick-butt water bottle that's actually easy to clean, and some sweet argyle socks.)

Click on this for a better view, it's worth seeing the cutest felt bee ever!

Buddy's mom brought me some fresh flowers that she arranged. She's a great florist, so I always love getting her arrangements. My friend Amanda gave me some intense fabric for my stash. The fabric is a border print, with a double print of blue cranes (?) against a brown background. The feel is soft and silky, and the drape is great, so I have to think long and hard on how to use it properly. And my friend Erin brought me a felted bee (my favorite of the day, I think), and a homemade necklace. You can check out her Etsy store if you are interested in her style.

I also received this wicked cute Etsy-made sloth necklace the day before. Though purchased, and not home-made, I feel like Etsy purchases are worth celebrating for their handmade goodness. And this guy is super adorable. 

 And speaking of adorable, I must correct an earlier statement. I did sew this weekend. I reattached the ear to my nephew's favorite elephant toy. It gave me a chance to practice my slip stitch, but more importantly it gave me a chance to see my nephew prance around happily showing everyone his fixed elephant (Randolph) and trying to shove said Randolph through our screened in porch. (And just for the record, the wet cardboard behind that sweetie is a casualty of the water balloon war we also had that day. What can I say? It was a fun party!)

Is he cute or what?  I love the lamb's tail of snot, myself.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Recipe Experimentation: Cassava Cake & Sticky Rice

Champagne Mmmmmmango

One of the tricky aspects of eating a restrictive diet is the fact that you can't have the foods you love. My family is Filipino, and loves a good dessert. I mean, who doesn't? After I got this recipe from a Filipino coworker, one of the dishes that they often ask me to make is cassava cake.  I think an easy way to describe cassava cake is that it's like a coconut flavored bread pudding, only instead of bread, you use a starchy root (cassava/yucca) as the base. Topped off with condensed milk, like any decent Filipino confection, it's a whole lot of rich and sweet and yummy.

For my brother and his then fiancee's wedding shower before Easter (yes, this is how behind I am on my posts, folks), I made cassava cake for the family. I thought this would be a good time for me to experiment with my first recipe innovation for a dessert.  I had made a "sugar-free" version of cassava cake years before, only to have it turn out dry, so I wanted to see if I could apply my newer familiarity with sweeteners to come up with a better version.

The main sugar culprits

The recipe I use for cassava cake has three major culprits for sugar: condensed milk, cream of coconut (the kind used when making pina coladas), and macapuno. I am not sure how to describe macapuno, though I like the explanation given here. Here's a picture of what it looks like when you open one up. Think soft, young, thick, shredded coconut. In syrup. Syrup is the main concern here, though I suppose if the macapuno is cooked down in it, there's still some issues with using it. It's very tasty though, as the texture is meatier and softer than the typical coconut you buy.  And you can't really make a decent cassava cake without macapuno, but the syrup at least has to go.

So, the macapuno substitution was pretty straight forward: get rid of the syrup. I rinsed off the coconut strings completely. The problem with this is that I just lost a lot of my sweetener and some of the moisture of my dessert. This is where the last post's information comes in handy: I need something sweet, but also find a way of returning some softness and moisture to the mix. Enter vegetable glycerine. Since it's hygroscopic, I knew it'd do a good job of retaining the soft texture I'm looking for while still sweetening things up. Had I been a good, diligent blogger, I would have kept track of how much I added. But things were hectic, I was eyeballing it instead of measuring, and I trusted my sieve of a memory to recall the info when things settled down. Not very logical, but certainly in character of me. Let's say it was about a quarter cup.

But I don't like how sweet veggie glycerin is on it's own. It's too much for me. So, I added a tablespoon or so of inulin to calm it down and balance out the sweet spectrum. I may have added a little stevia, but I don't remember at this point. I do know that I refined the taste mainly by comparing the more Seeks-friendly version to the regular version I was making at the same time. Tweek. Taste. Tweek. Taste. Satisfaction. 

Creamed coconut

The cream of coconut was another, similar matter. The addition of cream of coconut adds a lot of sugar and syrupy moistness to the mix, but also adds more coconut. Since I took care of the sweet and moist with the sweeteners I used, the question was how to get more rich coconut into the recipe. Only a few weeks before I had found creamed coconut in the health food store. And then I found it in the Filipino food store as well. My impression is that it's the results of the first pressing of coconut to get coconut milk. You can use it to make your own coconut milk, from what I gather. You reconstitute it in water and you end up with a thick, somewhat gritty, but concentrated stew of coconut.

Reconstituted creamed coconut reminds me of cream of wheat

Finally, for the condensed milk, I really should say that there is no good substitution. Not for all of the characteristics that make the condensed milk so good for this dish. You put it on top of the cassava cake and it browns and bubbles and becomes a sweet, syrupy, milky mess of goodness. You can't get that without sugar. But I wanted something. So I put some yacon syrup on top (which I said earlier at least gives a meek impression of molasses).

And here are the results, with the standard cassava cake on the right, and my safe(r) version on the left:

top view

side view

As you can see, there really is no replacing the condensed milk. The yacon syrup just can't compete. But otherwise, the moisture and texture of the two are really quite similar. Yay! The taste is a little milder on my version, but that is again mainly due to the lack of condensed milk: I really should have put about twice as much yacon syrup on top to match the sweetness of sugar, and that seems like a waste of a lot of yacon syrup. What I may do next time is mix the yacon with glycerin, to maintain more of a syrupy topping than what I had gotten, and to get more sweet with a touch of molasses action.

I want to post the recipe, but am going to try and get permission from my old coworker first, as it's her recipe.  If I get permission, I'll post it! In my opinion, everyone's life would be better with a little more cassava cake.

I also made mangos and sticky rice, a standard version based on this recipe and an alternatively sweetened version (I think I used a stevia/inulin mix).  I am not going to go into details on the process, as this has already gone on long enough. But I can't help but post the pretty food pictures.

Neither of these dishes are really all that good for me to eat, even with the better sweeteners. Coconut, yucca, and rice are all limits. But it all comes down to serving size at that point, so I just take small bits that add up to partial limits. The cassava cake freezes well and reheats in the oven quite happily. And the sticky rice just didn't survive the family.