Rice au Lait de Chèvre

Two thumbs up for goat milk rice pudding! Don’t be surprised if this isn’t the last rice pudding variation to appear in my kitchen, as rice pudding in any form has long been one of my favourite comfort foods. If you search the Desert category you’ll also find my Velvety Valencia Rice pudding made with a premium Bomba rice that soaks up liquid like a sponge & puffs up like tapioca – Yumm!

Yes, goat milk instead of cows milk makes rice pudding that’s nothing short of amazing, and no one in my household suspected the switch!  Though the difference is nondescript, the finished product has a complexity somehow lacking in previous recipes.

[NOTE: "Goat Milk is easier to digest and more easily assimilated by the delicate stomachs of children, young mothers and the elderly."]

It is pictured here with and without the optional addition of raisins ~ you choose!

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups water

2 cups goat milk (we used Liberte)

1/3 cup organic sugar  (+ 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup – optional)

1 cup basmati white rice (or arborio rice). [Note: if using arborio, add an additional 1/4 cup water]

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (+ 1/8 teaspoon {a pinch} of ground cardamom – optional)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins (Sultana, or Thompson)

1 Tablespoon butter, or melted coconut oil

1 egg beaten with 1/4 cup water

Grated or Ground nutmeg to sprinkle on top for garnish

METHOD:

Combine water, goat milk, sugars, salt, spices, and rice, in a 3 quart sauce pan (heavy bottomed pot).

Bring to a simmer on stovetop and reduce heat to low – the mixture should be barely simmering, uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir it occasionally until the rice is tender. [Note: if the rice is not cooked enough or the mixture is too stiff, feel free to add more water a tablespoon at a time until the rice is soft & the mixture still "liquidy"].

Remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla, and butter or melted coconut oil.

Set aside to cool for twenty minutes or so, stirring occasionally to let some of the heat escape & prevent a ‘skin’ from forming on top.

Beat egg & 1/4 cup water together, and add very slowly, stirring the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon or spurtle the whole time you are adding the egg mixture.

Pour final mixture into a buttered 8″X8″ square (2 Qt.) or equivalent round or oval glass baking dish, sprinkle sparingly with grated or ground nutmeg, cover lightly with tinfoil shiny side down, and bake in center oven at 300 F. for 25 minutes.

Raise oven rack up one level, remove tinfoil, and broil for 2 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool slightly before serving warm, or chill in refrigerator for later enjoyment – keeps well if covered in refrigerator for up to 7 days.

with joy over a new version of my favourite comfort food that’s “nothing short of wow!”

Diana E. Natalie

Special Request Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

We recently hosted a baby shower for our daughter-in-law, at which these clouds of moist chocolatey-ness, otherwise known as Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes were served. Since then I’ve been getting requests to post the recipe.

Giving credit where it is due, the recipe for both these cupcakes and their delicate frosting can be found in the Taste of Home special edition ‘New for 2012 Cupcakes’. I will share both here so that you can make them yourself, and so that you will have another use for all the extra zucchini’s you’re going to grow in your garden or deck pots this summer!

NOTE: I can’t remember if we substituted ‘healthier options’ for any of the ingredients, but we likely used unbleached ‘florida organic cane sugar’ and perhaps a bit less of it than what is called for below. We also may have replaced a cup of the flour called for with one cup of organic Spelt flour. These ingredients and the dark Dutch baking cocoa can all be found at a good local bulk food store, like The Main Ingredient in Peterborough, ON. You could use a 16 oz. can of chocolate frosting, but it tends to be heavier and harder to spread. We liked the ‘Light & Fluffy Chocolate Frosting’ made with the ingredients listed below.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup baking cocoa (dark Dutch cocoa, 22-24%)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 cup grated zucchini

1 cup grated carrot

LIGHT & FLUFFY CHOCOLATE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar)

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I’d advise against the microwave for this, as it easily burns. Melt it slowly in a heavy bottomed pot on your stovetop)

2 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

Sprinkles of your choice (we used ‘Wilton Pearls’ but they are a bit hard on the teeth – this is just my opinion as I was sporting a ‘temporary crown’ on one of my molars at the time!)

CUPCAKE METHOD:

In large bowl, with electric beater if you have one, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternatively with yogurt, beating well after each addition. Fold in grated zucchini and carrot.

Fill paper lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 F for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from muffin tin to wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

We used plain muffin papers for baking, then placed each cupcake into a fancy decorative muffin paper and onto the pedestal server. (NOTE: If you bake the cupcakes in the fancy muffin papers, they tend to absorb oils, fade, and not look as pretty).

FROSTING METHOD:

In medium bowl, beat butter and icing sugar until smooth. Beat in the melted chocolate, evaporated milk, vanilla, and salt. Frost cooled cupcakes adding sprinkles immediately after frosting each one, so they “stick”.

With joy over clouds of moist chocolatey-ness!

Diana E. Natalie

Tomatoey Sunday Quote & Photo 28.04.2013

Have you started a few tomato plants indoors early this spring? It will soon be time to ‘harden them off’ and plant them out in their summer home. Here are a couple of photos…one of my current baby plants (tomatoes & peppers) … and one a memory of last August’s tomato harvest on my deck!

Lastly, here’s a tomatoey poem to wet your appetite, by Washington Post culinary blogger, Kim O’Donnel.

TOMATO LOVE

Sonnet #43, Kitchen Style

by Kim ODonnel |  August 7, 2006

Tomato-basil salad with dots of goat cheese. (also by Kim O’Donnel)

How do I love thee, tomato? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and might
My palate can reach, when remembering out of sight
Your peak month of August, when you bear fruits of juicy Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most urgent need for a BLT, by sun or moon-light.
I love thee with abandon, as Venus might her Mars or Vulcan
I love thee purely, as surely as the summer wanes
I love thee with the passion of my appetite
Above all fruits, and with my childhood’s eye of Jersey tomatoes
As if they were falling from the sky.
I love thee with a hunger I seemed to lose
With my lost innocence (and the icky mealy tomatoes of January)! I love thee with the smell,
Unlike no other in the garden, and your vine-ripened sweetness
That bring me smiles, tears, only at this time of year! — and if the farmer’s choose
I shall but love thee better after many bowls of gazpacho.

_______

with joy over all shapes & sizes & colours of fresh home-grown tomatoes!

Diana E. Natalie

Capital Ideas

In today’s small world I wasn’t that far from home as I sat in the nations capital thinking these thoughts. West Ottawa, Ontario, is only three and one half hours from Peterborough by car.

It was a day and a half to take in an historic hockey game via gift tickets, and hang out with our son and daughter-in-law, soon to be first time parents. We worshipped together and enjoyed lunch with them on a sunny spring Sunday.

During our stay I mentioned that I’ve been thinking about eliminating my facebook account again at least for the warm weather months. This led to my reading an article in Relevant Magazine, which resonated so much with me as a blogger & writer who often feels compelled to use social media to convey my thoughts, share creativity, and connect with other like-minded friends.

The authors’ thoughts matched my own almost identically. “Remember that life isn’t about the story you tell about yourself on the Internet. It’s about a million more beautiful and complex things than that, like love and faith and really listening. It’s about using what you’ve been given to craft a life of gratitude and passion and grace.”

It’s really as simple as this. Using what we’ve been given – our God-given areas of giftedness, whatever they may be, to connect with individuals – to and nurture and build honest, transforming friendships.

If we are separated by physical distance, technology does allow for this to happen via phonecalls, Skype, and ‘wandering emails’ as the author Shauna Niequist put it. (By the way, check out her books, ‘Bittersweet’, ‘Cold Tangerines’, and ‘Bread & Wine’.) And any time we’re blessed to spend the same time in the same space, it’s sheer joy to “hear each other’s actual voices, when we enter one another’s actual homes, with actual messes, around actual tables telling stories that ramble on beyond 140 pithy characters.”

Here you go…read what Shauna has to say in her article, ’Instagram’s Envy Effect’. It encapsulates the reason and personal goals behind why I’m taking a break from Facebook at least, and being more intentional about making certain things happen in my real life…laughing at a meal with friends…and for starters that’s a capital idea.

with joy,

Diana E. Natalie

SCD Legally Blonde Brownies

The first ‘Stand In My Kitchen’ original recipe for those on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. A moist nutty quare. Delightful with or without the ‘topping’, these no-chocolate ‘SCD legal‘ squares freeze easily for later consumption. (See the SCD Category in right hand sidebar re. more information for those seeking intestinal health through diet.)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup ground almonds (almond meal / almond flour)

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup dried apricots *soaked in hot water & drained

1/3 cup dates (unsweetened loose) *soaked in hot water & drained

1/3 cup raisins *soaked in hot water & drained

1/4 cup 100% pure orange juice

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup 100% almond butter

1/4 cup  liquid honey

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1/4 cup homemade yogurt or SCD-safe yogurt

TOPPING:

1 Tablespoon softened butter

1 Tablespoon liquid honey

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup ground almonds (almond meal / almond flour)

METHOD:

*Coarsely chop apricots and dates. Place in a separate bowl with raisins. Cover with hot water (boiled in kettle) and set aside to soak for 20 minutes.

Drain soaked dried fruit. (You are going to use the soaked fruit, not the discarded liquid.)

Pulse coconut first, then continue to add ingredients in the order listed (except for topping ingredients) pulsing them all together until you have a batter-like texture.

Preheat oven to 350 F. (325 F. for convection oven).

Butter an 8″ X 8″ glass baking dish.

Scrape batter from food processor into prepared (greased) baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.

Cool almost completely (on a wire rack) before cutting and removing squares from pan.

Beat ‘Topping’ ingredients together, and spread on cooled individual squares using a butter or frosting knife.

Cool in refrigerator to firm up the topping if desired before transporting or serving.

Makes 2 dozen squares.

Freezes well.

with joy over helping people help themselves to better health,

Diana E. Natalie

New Category @ Stand In My Kitchen ~ SCD Recipes

Recipes using LEGAL / SAFE ingredients for

THE SPECIFIC CARBOHYDRATE (SCD) DIET™.

For those following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ for Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Diverticulitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Celiac Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Chronic Diarrhea, and Systemic Candida Yeast Infection…

…these recipes will go beyond ‘gluten free’ and ‘grain free’. They will contain only those ingredients listed as ‘legal’ or ‘safe’ for the SCD diet. That is, they will contain NO double sugars or starches (disaccharides: lactose, sucrose, maltose and isomaltose, and starches: polysaccharides).

The science behind the diet that has helped thousands of individuals help themselves to better health, and the reasons for avoiding specific ingredients can be found HERE, and in Elaine Gottschall’s book, now in its 13th printing, Breaking The Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through Diet.

*[See below for an excerpt]

More SCD safe and tested recipes can be found in Sharon Lott’s book Harmonize Your Eating & Feel Fit As A Fiddle, Natural Notes to Coping With Inflammatory Bowel Disorder, which is now available as an Amazon Kindle edition.

* “The Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ has helped many thousands of people with various forms of bowel disease and other ailments vastly improve their quality of life. In many cases people consider themselves cured. It is a diet intended mainly for Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, diverticulitis, cystic fibrosis and chronic diarrhea. However it is a very healthy, balanced and safe diet that has health benefits for everyone. The foods that are allowed on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ are based on the chemical structure of these foods. Carbohydrates are classified by their molecular structure.

The allowed carbohydrates are monosaccharides and have a single molecule structure that allow them to be easily absorbed by the intestine wall. Complex carbohydrates which are disaccharides (double molecules) and polysaccharides (chain molecules) are not allowed. Complex carbohydrates that are not easily digested feed harmful bacteria in our intestines causing them to overgrow producing by products and inflaming the intestine wall. The diet works by starving out these bacteria and restoring the balance of bacteria in our gut.” [from 'Breaking The Vicious Cycle Beginners Guide']

_______________

First SCD Recipe to ‘Stand In My Kitchen’: SCD Legally Blonde Brownies. COMING SOON!!!

We will also be sharing SCD safe products, sources for ingredients, and further resources…

_______________

with joy over helping yourself to better health through diet and nutrition!

Diana E. Natalie

Mustard Seeds, Pine Nuts, & Sweet Potatoes ~ An Easter Posting 03.2013

~ a special blog posting for Easter:

Greatness In Inconspicuousness; Mustard Seeds, Pine Nuts, and Sweet Potatoes

mustard seed

This is Holy Week in all of Christendom, as we consider the Easter story. This morning, Palm Sunday in our little local church gathering, one of the pastor teachers spoke from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, where Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey as prophesied.

The crowds were spreading out their coats on the road ahead of him shouting and singing, “Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” Some of the religious Pharisees in the crowd didn’t recognize him as the promised Messiah and asked Jesus to rebuke the crowd for calling him King, and Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out & burst into cheers!” The point was made from the text that everything in heaven and earth is under the authority of it’s maker and sustainer. Everything was created through Him and for Him.

When we look we see evidences all around of the awesomeness and wonder of God through what He has made for His glory and our joy. These are things I don’t want to miss, as the religious leaders didn’t recognize God in the flesh or the ‘upside-down kingdom’ he was about to usher in. It’s easy to miss the culmination of this story – not to see His greatness in the inconspicuousness of his incarnation. His kingdom is indeed like a mustard seed, it’s King full of humility and grace on the back of a donkey headed to a Roman cross.

This Easter as we remember the magnitude of Jesus’ death, burial, and RESURRECTION, and its implication for each of us – that He has conquered death for us and offers us life, may we hear all creation sing, “Hallelujah! He is risen!”

When we listen we can hear all creation “bursting into cheers” singing it’s praise back to it’s Maker.

For some joy in a small thing, click this link to SEE & HEAR what burst into praise right in my kitchen this week! SWEET POTATOES SINGING HOT OUT OF THE OVEN!!! You’ll have to wait to find out why I’m roasting up more sweet potato, but it does have something else to do with Easter…

Lastly, I noticed that The Message paraphrase of the bible refers to Pine Nuts instead of Mustard Seeds; “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it”.

Here’s a poem written a few years ago with a picture of the long unnoticed piece of creation that inspired it. Like this pine tree, God’s kingdom is still growing, whispering hope, and offering safety to all who would build their nest there by trusting and treasuring it’s King.

PINE TREE

© 2004. Diana E. Natalie Johnson

Pine Tree

Solitary Sentinel

Ever Green

Pointing Heavenward

Wind Swept

Whispering Softly

Songs of the Creator

with joy over greatness in inconspicuousness! Oh, and why was i roasting sweet potato? Sweet Potato Hot Cross Buns of course! And that’s a recipe for another post!

Diana E. Natalie