Making Mock Apple Pie

Here in the Upper Midwest, September means apple season and all the good things that go along with it.  Apple pie, turnovers, caramel apples, apple crisp—the list goes on and on.  My favorite variety has always been Cortland, followed in close second place by Macintosh, and then anything else that's a bit more tart than sweet. 

So with all the ripe, authentic bounty of the apple orchard, why in the world would I want to make a mock apple pie?  Well, it all comes down to my sensitive digestion (darn it).  I love apples, but they no longer love me. 

You see, apples are a big source of FODMAPs, an acronym for certain types of carbohydrates that IBS sufferers like me have trouble digesting.  I won't bore you with the entire list of delicious foods I've had to break up with, but if you ever need a good cry and want something to tip you over the edge, do an internet search on FODMAPs.

Anyway, as I passed by a loaded apple tree on my walk the other day, I wondered if there was a recipe for mock apple pie that I could eat.  Not the old RITZ cracker mock apple pie (no thanks, gluten) that I remember printed on every box in my youth.  But maybe something made with, say, zucchini?  Zucchini is a low-FODMAP vegetable that I tolerate well and, given its basic blandness, might be amenable to the ruse.  It also happens to be that lucky time of year when gardener friends are desperate to share their overgrown zucchini, the ones that look  like baseball bats.

So I sat down to Google "mock apple pie recipes with zucchini" and found...it's definitely a thing!  

After scanning the ingredient list of a half dozen such recipes, I finally settled on one that had a lower amount of sugar (see the above preference for tart over sweet).  It was this recipe for Zapple Pie.  You're going to want to click that link and save it.  Trust me.

Then I got down to business.  First order of business:  Procure a big-ass zucchini.  Luckily, my sister had just been gifted one and let me have it.  Literally, that is; she didn't bop me with it, although it did resemble a small club.

I substituted my own gluten-free pie crust in this recipe.  I mixed that together and put the pie dough in the refrigerator to chill.

Then I peeled and de-seeded the zucchini and cut it into slices.  The recipe called for 6 cups, but I used 8, thinking it'd cook down (it did somewhat, but surprisingly not that much).  Also, I just like more pie filling.

Next, I simmered the zucchini in lemon juice for 5 minutes, then added in the sugar, spices, and tapioca.  I used tapioca flour in place of the Minute tapioca because that's what I had on hand.  After simmering another 5 minutes or so, it had thickened up nicely and totally looked like apple pie filling!

As that was set aside to cool a bit, I pressed half my gluten-free pie crust into a square glass pan.  My gluten-free crust recipe tends to be crumbly and doesn't always roll out as well as a regular flour crust does, but I've learned that patting it in the pan works out fine.  I patted it in the bottom and about an inch up the sides of the pan.

After the filling was added to the bottom crust, I flattened out the other half of the crust as best I could, then lifted sections of it with a spatula onto the top of the filling.  I proceeded like that, adding sections of crust and fitting them together until the top was covered.

Let's call it rustic.  It sounds nicer than "cobbled together."  By the way, this is the first time I've baked a two-crust pie in a square pan.  I normally use a round pie plate, but I decided to try a slab pie this time.  I may make more pies this way from now on.  Not very pretty, but easier and just as good.

I brushed the top with some almond milk and sprinkled on about a tablespoon or so of coarse granulated sugar, and popped it into the oven.  Pretty soon, the house smelled wonderful!

After it had baked per the directions, I took it out to cool.  I could hardly wait to try it, but I knew it had to cool almost completely before I cut into it.  I went for a long walk.  When I came back it was still a bit warm, but my patience had given out.  I cut a piece and took a bite.

Ding-ding-ding!  It tasted JUST LIKE APPLE PIE!!  Had I not made it myself, I would not believe it wasn't real apple pie!  It hit all the marks for taste, texture, and just the right amount of tangy sweetness.

Yes, yes, yes!  I will definitely make Zapple Pie again!  I know I'm using way too many exclamation points, but I am so stoked that this pie turned out so well.  It's the little things that make me happy!  Except it feels like a BIG win to enjoy a piece of what tastes like real apple pie!

So tell me, have you ever made or eaten mock apple pie?  If you like apples, do you have a favorite kind?

~Paulette

Two Weeks from Everywhere

I am without running water in the kitchen at the moment, due to a leaky faucet.  This is one of those faucets that doubles as a sprayer with a removable handle and telescoping hose.  The faucet itself is fine, but the hose developed a leak, resulting in a minor flood under the sink that was, thankfully, caught early.

The plumber was out last week to address the situation.  He said it'd be a matter of replacing a) the hose, at a cost of $$ plus a half hour's labor, or b) the entire faucet, at a cost of $$$ plus two hours' labor.  We chose a).

The problem, however, was finding the replacement hose.  A large plumbing supply store failed to have one available, so the plumber called the manufacturer, Delta, and was advised it could be ordered.

"It'll be here in about two weeks," he said.

Which made me laugh.  Not the reaction one might expect, faced with the reality of being without water in the kitchen for that long.  But I was thinking of the scene from one of my favorite movies, O'Brother Where Art Thou, where George Clooney's character goes into the general store in Middle of Nowhere to get a part for his truck...and some hair pomade (see clip here).

So we're toting water in buckets from the nearest working faucet (which happens to be in the basement) to cook, clean counter tops, and rinse dishes.  In other words, multitasking, getting some exercise in with the usual kitchen chores. Thankfully, the dishwasher still works.

* * * * *
While we're in the kitchen, I thought I'd share a recipe I came up with recently, when the idea of reheating some leftover plain rice to have alongside supper one night seemed ho-hum.

It turned out tasting like something I'd want to remember how to make again, so I jotted down how it went together and titled it Carrot Rice Pilaf.  Maybe a better name for it would be Golden Rice, because of its lovely color due to the turmeric. 

It is baked it in a covered dish in the oven, but I've also made it from scratch with raw rice on the stove top (following the usual method of making rice, but tossing in the other ingredients with the raw rice).  Honestly, I prefer the baked version.

If you're sensitive to gluten and/or FODMAPs, this fits the bill.  It can be dairy-free as well if you use a nondairy butter substitute. 

Carrot Rice Pilaf (Golden Rice)

2 cups of cooked (leftover) rice
1/2 carrot, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon Tajin seasoning (or regular salt)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh chives (or 1 teaspoon dry chives)
2 Tablespoons melted butter (I used ghee, or clarified butter)
2 Tablespoons slivered almonds
1/4 cup water

Combine everything in a baking dish.  Cover and bake 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Optional:  We splashed on some Bragg Liquid Aminos (or you could use soy sauce) and chopped cilantro, and it took it to another level.  Next time, I am going to try adding the Bragg's (about 1 Tablespoon, I'm guessing) right into to the mix before it goes into the oven.

Sunday Sundry 9-25-16

It's been awhile since the last Sunday Sundry installment, a space for everything (but not everything in this space).  Let the randomness begin!

(Hunter's Star quilt finish, below)

Food, Glorious Food
As I write this, I'm eating some of last night's dessert, Paleo Rice Pudding.  So good!  Don't let the paleo tag put you off.  I look for paleo recipes because it usually means it's real food and the recipe is likely to be gluten-free and dairy-free and use a minimal amount of natural sweetener.

I've been on a winning streak with the recipes I'm finding on Pinterest and elsewhere lately.  As a side with dinner last night, I made Cumin Cooked Cabbage, and that was terrific as well.

This is not your mother's cooked cabbage.  Not my mother's, at any rate.

Funny how a person's tastes change through the years.  I have liked most every kind of food as far back as I can remember, with the exception of a handful of things, like salmon, cilantro, cooked cabbage, and German chocolate cake (the goopy frosting, specifically). 

(image source)

On about my sixth birthday, a sweltering August day in the '60s, I asked my mother what we were having for dinner that evening.  Cooked cabbage and German chocolate cake, was the answer (presumably among other things).  To which news I threw a small tantrum, pleading her to change menu plans.  "I HATE cooked cabbage and I HATE German chocolate cake!"  It was my birthday, after all, and I felt I deserved some say in the matter.

"I CAN'T eat BOTH of those things, they make me GAG!"  But Mom was not one to be swayed by the emotions of a kindergartner, and she brushed my petitions aside like so many pesky houseflies, shooing me back outside to play, or sulk, in the process.

Fast forward six hours and I am, in fact, bowing to the porcelain throne, my mother standing by with a cool washcloth.  "I TOLD you it'd make me sick," I moaned with beads of sweat on my forehead.  "You just caught a bug," she soothed.  I was not convinced.

As I got older and tried (and tried, and tried again) those "icky" things, I eventually came to love them all.  It was the way it was prepared, in the case of salmon, that I disliked.  That was in the form of salmon loaf, from canned salmon, that the school lunch served once a month or so.  Blarg!  I'd eat it, at least a couple repulsive bites—back then it was that or go hungry—but I detested it.

Then in my mid-20s, with my sister's endorsement, I tried a slab of fresh, wild-caught salmon—and really didn't mind it.  I was wary, so I can't say I liked it right off, but it was definitely tastier and better than the stuff I remembered from the cafeteria days.  So I tried it again...and again...and then I really liked it.  Now I could (and sometimes do) eat salmon twice a week.

Cooked cabbage?  Well, my mother cooked the daylights out of it, usually with a big ole ham hock, and by the time supper rolled around, it was gray, slimy, and bitter.  Cabbage doesn't need to boil for hours, it turns out.  A quick saute or steam is all it needs.  

Now cilantro is a different story, and that chapter wasn't rewritten until about five years ago.  That's when I noticed it was hiding in my "organic mixed greens" and consequently making the whole salad taste like soap.  But being the frugal person I am, I couldn't bring myself to dump a pricey bin of greens, and the stuff was too elusive to pick out of the mix, so I just put on my big girl bib and dug in.  By the next shopping trip, I'd forgotten about the sneaky cilantro and bought another big container of the mixed greens—and again chomped my way through it.  But you know what?  By the third time I made that mistake, I wasn't minding the cilantro.  In fact, my palate kind of looked forward to that zing of weirdness among otherwise snooze-worthy greens.  Soon, I was buying the stuff in bunches and adding it to recipes—somewhat to the chagrin of my husband, who is not yet a convert.

So taste buds (and minds) can change with exposure and openness to experience, I believe.  That said, I'm not going to be rustling up any Rocky Mountain oysters anytime soon.

Getting High (perspectively speaking)
The hubs and I went for a hike last weekend in a new-to-us state park.  I once again demonstrated how to get lost despite marked trails and a map in my back pocket.

The upside:  (1)  We found the observation tower, (2) It was a gorgeous day, and (3) Hiking in circles gets you twice (okay, maybe three times) as much exercise!

A Quilt Finish
I finished the Hunter's Star quilt this week.  It ended up about 56 inches square, a nice lap quilt size.

That funky backing makes me smile, and hopefully it will someone else too.

Got it all nicely packaged and donated.  

It will be among a number of other prizes raffled in an upcoming local event, where combat wounded veterans gather and go duck hunting together and enjoy a weekend of comradery.

Cookie Recipe

I've been asked about the recipe for the big chunky peanut butter chocolate chip cookie I made on Pi Day.  Here it is!

This recipe is gluten-free.  It is also sweet but not overly so.  If you want a little bit sweeter cookie, feel free to add another tablespoon of sugar to the dough or sprinkle it over the top of the cookie before baking.  

(Cookie dough before baking)

This recipe makes one 10-inch cookie.  Alternatively, you could just spoon the dough out the way you usually do for cookies, in which case it makes about a dozen.  If you do that, you may want to lightly press down the top of each cookie before baking using the flat bottom of a glass.  

CHUNKY PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural Super Chunk)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Nativas Natural Raw Cacao Powder)
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (add 1 T. more, if you like a sweeter cookie)
3 tablespoons coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Scant 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional, helps texture in gluten-free baking)
1 egg
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Dump all ingredients except the chocolate chips into a medium bowl and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until well combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Plop the dough onto the center of the parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Using a spatula, shape cookie dough into approximately a 10-inch circle on the parchment paper lined baking sheet, flattening to about 1/4-inch.  Lightly score into 8 wedges with flat edge of knife.  Bake for 11 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before cutting along score lines.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Bars

I have a friend who gave me a useful tip pertaining to grocery shopping.  I was lamenting how my husband could go to the store with a list but sometimes forgot a couple things, including, invariably, the thing I needed most.

She said she'd been there, and her solution was to add a few random extra items to the list before handing it over to her husband.  That way, hopefully, whatever he forgot wouldn't be the thing needed most.  She said it seemed to work, and I'm no mathematician, but it made sense to me.

However, it didn't factor into account buying the wrong item, which is what happened when "canned pumpkin" on the list became this:

As you probably know, pumpkin pie mix, or pumpkin pie filling, is different from canned pumpkin in that it already contains the sugar and spices and whatnot.  I have never used it, preferring to add my own level of sweetness and spice mixture to my holiday pie. Call me a control freak.

We did get plain old canned pumpkin in time for Thanksgiving and put the pie filling on the pantry shelf along with the receipt so we could return it sometime.

However, I got bored an idea on Friday for using the can of pie filling to make something other than pie.  How about cookies?  I added a bit of this and that to the pie filling and then changed my mind while stirring it together because the consistency was looking more like cake batter than cookies.  I am known to take the path of least resistance, and thus I settled for dumping it all into a 9-inch pan and hoping for pumpkin cake.

When my timer went off at 25 minutes, I checked it.  The center was still  mushy.  Maybe another six minutes?  Nope, still gooey.  I set and re-set the timer three or four more times.  Ultimately, I took it out after about 46 minutes, when the toothpick test finally came up clean.

By that time, I had begun to lose confidence in how this concoction was going to taste.  Nevertheless, I let it cool while I went and took a nap.  Baking is hard work.

As I cut into it later, I noticed it didn't have the kind of "crumb" a cake has.  It had more the consistency of pie...but not quite.  The texture was kind of a cross between the two.  What would you call that?

Not quite pie, yet not quite cake.  Cie?  Pake?

How about bars.  Bars works.

And, lo and behold, they tasted great!  This morning, they were just as good and maybe even better.  (Disregard the fact that I've just called them great/good/better, in that order, in the space of two sentences.  This food gig is not my usual terrain.)  It stayed well set up and the flavors melded nicely. There's some foodie verbiage for you.

I can see this type of bar appealing to folks who like pumpkin pie but not particularly the crust.  Do you have any of those in your family?  I do.  Maybe it's genetic.

So I'm memorializing the recipe here, in case anyone has a can of pumpkin pie mix lying around, or in the event I end up with one again sometime. If you don't need it to be gluten-free, you could probably use 2 cups of regular flour plus the baking soda, but I'm not sure how that might affect the texture.**  Maybe it would end up more like cake and less like pie, or maybe you'd be able to make those cookies.  If you try it, let me know.

**Edited to Add:  Marei made these and had this to say:

"These bars came out wonderfully.  I used regular flour and about 1.5 tsp. of baking soda.  I actually think I'd drop that down to no more than a tsp.  The crumb was very moist and the texture was a cross between a 'regular' pumpkin bar and a cake-y thing.  I liked it a lot and will use this again next time I buy the wrong pumpkin.  Oh...I would also add in a dash of salt and some vanilla...just because I like vanilla."

Thanks, Marei!


Pumpkin Pie Bars (Gluten-Free)

1 can Libby's pumpkin pie mix (not canned pumpkin)
1 large egg
1/4 c. soft butter (I used ghee)
2 c. gluten-free flour mix as follows, stirred together in a small bowl:
    1 c. almond flour
    1/4 c. coconut flour
    1/4 c. tapioca flour
    Scant 1/2 c. sorghum flour
    1/4 t. xanthan gum
    2 t. baking soda
Topping:
1/4 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Stir the gluten-free flour mixture together in a small bowl.  In a large bowl, stir the pumpkin pie mix, egg, and butter together until well mixed.  Add the flour mixture and stir to combine.  Pour into baking pan and top with pecans and chocolate chips.  Bake 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool before cutting.

Chocolate Beet Cake: Round Two

This one's a keeper!  

Julie, who blogs at Julie Lou, commented last week on my failed attempt at a chocolate beet cake, including a link to a recipe she has used with success. 

So, with a Ziplock bag of fresh beets in the fridge, I gave it a try.  This recipe called for raw, grated beets.  Here are the little ruby gems, peeled and quartered and ready for a spin in the food processor.

I had to change the recipe somewhat to make it gluten free.  Next, I consulted Google to find out what an oven temp of 160 C. translated to in Fahrenheit (about 325 degrees), and how much was 300 grams of grated beets.  After getting conflicting information on the last query, I just went with a cup and a half.

Ready to go in the oven - the batter is sort of pink.

After baking - it looks like chocolate cake!

Before I go any further, I have to tell you that you don't taste beets in this recipe.  This is about to be reaffirmed, I suspect, momentarily.  Norm just got home from work and is loading a piece of what simply looks like yummy chocolate cake on a plate as I type this.  And he loathes beets.  I'm about to ask him what he thinks of the cake...

One moment please...I want him to finish the whole piece.

"It's a really good cake."

YES!!!

"Why, does it have beets in it?"

Yes.  Yes, it does.  (He seems unfazed by this admission.)

Now, I bet the only reason he asked that is because I've had the new beet cake recipe printed out and sitting next to the computer for a few days and he probably noticed it.  I made sure I did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen of any other evidence before he got home.

"Well, you can't taste them.  Maybe it's a little sweeter," he added.

I'm calling that a success.  

Dad, if you're reading this, I will save you some cake.  Thanks for sharing your garden bounty.  And thanks again to Julie, who enjoys baking and quilting and gardening, among other things.  Her beautiful blog is drool worthy on many levels.

Below is my gluten-free version of the recipe linked above.  I made other modifications as well, and I want to remember what I did.  I'll be making this again!

Chocolate Beet Cake (gluten-free)

1/2 c. melted coconut oil (I used part ghee, about 1/4 c.)
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
2/3 c. sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 c. beets, peeled and finely grated
1/3 c. white rice flour
1/3 c. sorghum flour
1/3 c. almond meal flour
1/4 c. tapioca starch flour
3/4 t. xanthan gum
1/4 c. cocoa
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1-1/2 t. cinnamon

Topping:
1/4 c. chocolate chips
1/4 c. ground walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Grease a 9 x 9 square baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix together white rice flour, sorghum flour, almond meal, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl, beat together oil, sugar, applesauce, and eggs.  Stir in grated beets and flour mixture, and mix until well combined.

Spoon into prepared pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips and ground walnuts.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean but moist.  Cool before cutting.

Random 8-14-13

I basted the black and white quilt over the weekend, but have been taking my time (read: procrastinating) on getting around to actually starting on the quilting.  It's the way I roll, folks.  I know this and deal. 

That means I do any number of other things instead, like become engrossed in a new-to-me TV series now available on Netflix—Ripper Street.  Matthew Macfadyen, anyone?  Yes, please!

I seriously heart this show.  Wish our cable lineup included BBC America so I don't have to wait a whole year for the second season to get to Netflix.

Last night, I pin-crastinated on Pinterest, beefing up my Hot in Here board rather nicely, I think.

Douglas Booth

I cannot wait until Romeo and Juliet hits theaters in October.  This fellow is worth the ticket price in eye candy.  And Hailee Steinfeld?  Well, I loved her in True Grit.


I should reread Romeo and Juliet before the movie, though, because when it comes to Shakespeare, I always wish there were subtitles.  I like to spend a little time with the language, you know?  Although it's not like I don't remember how the story ends.

Speaking of which, I turn on the subtitles to watch Ripper Street because I don't want to miss any of the dialog.  The writing for that show is topnotch.

So I finally started quilting the black and white quilt today, doing some ditch quilting around the black frames.  Straight-line ditch quilting in black thread on black fabric means there is really nothing to show at this point.  I have an idea to quilt the centers of the frames in spirals, which is different than the original plan, but I think it will be cool, if I can get the hang of it.  I did one on a practice pad, but when I went to quilt the first one on the quilt, it was a spectacular disappointment.  That has been unpicked and I've stepped away from the quilt to allow my frustration to dissipate.  I'll be back for another go at it tomorrow.

Finally, the gardens are producing and I've been blessed this week with tomatoes, kohlrabi, cucumbers, green peppers, and zucchini.   I did the healthy, responsible eating thing with most of the big yellow zucchini I was given, but what I really craved was my old favorite, chocolate chip zucchini cake.  Went Googling for a gluten-free version and found this recipe, which I made immediately, adding one egg and decreasing the sugar by half (it was still plenty sweet).

(Source: mygluten-freekitchen.com)

In a word:  Awesome!! 

Digging this new song by Amos Lee.

Rhombille

I somehow landed on a Wikipedia page after looking for tumbling blocks quilt images and read about rhombille tiling for the first time.  Whuh?

You know, if Miss Watson had taught 9th grade geometry with quilt blocks, it might have been a little more interesting back in the day.  Well, to me, anyway.  Miss Watson herself was interesting in a quirky way.  She claimed her pale blue eyes were more light sensitive than most, so she had to wear sunglasses when using the overhead projector (talk about old school, are those even used anymore?).  I kind of felt bad for Miss Watson, in her polyester double knit shift dresses, for all the snickering that went on behind her back.  To me, there seemed a curious naivete about her, a shy girlishness only just beneath her delicate fifty-something features and wispy, mousey-brown hair.

Anyway, I have my hand piecing project ready.  You can expect a full report, particularly if it goes badly.  It ought to be interesting.

This recipe for brownies (discovered via Pinterest, where else) did not go badly.  If you're used to Betty Crocker mixes, this won't be the same, but for gluten-free, dairy-free, quasi-paleo eaters like me, it was awesome! I had to get the finished brownies into the freezer quickly (hence no pictures), before they all ended up "in ma belly."

I stumbled upon this video tonight on YouTube and was blown away.  Maybe mesmerized is a better word.  Wow.  Just, wow.

Favorite Things Friday, the Finale

Eek, it's Friday night!  I say that not that it's a bad thing, but because I've been meaning to do a Favourite Things Friday post, probably the last Favourite Things Friday post ever, because our fabulous hostess Shay at Quilting in My Pajamas has declared it to be so, in that she's been doing the Friday linky for two and a half years and has decided it's time to put her baby to bed, which I totally understand, and this is hands down the longest run-on sentence in the history of this blog, I guarantee!

Whew.

So while Norm is out gathering necessities for the weekend, i.e. good coffee and chocolate at our neighborhood Walgreens, I am going to try and do a post real quick.  Because when he gets back, we've got some Netflixin' to do.  No, that is not code for something, we're going to watch a movie!

So I had some things in the freezer—namely, last year's rhubarb—to do something with before it's rhubarb time all over again in six weeks or so (emphasis on the "so").

I love rhubarb, but because you need to sweeten it to make it palatable, and I have been trying to avoid sugar (and kinda failing at it lately), well, let's just say the rhubarb has been pretty safe in the freezer for almost a year.

But then last weekend a friend (cleaning out his own freezer, I suspect), gave me several packages of strawberries from his garden last year.  And raspberries.

I also had a frozen gluten-free pie crust in there left over from holiday baking.  Pretty much all the main ingredients for a rhubarb-strawberry pie.  Look out sugar, here we come!

But you know what?  Turns out you don't really need all that much sugar for this pie.  I admit I like a tart pie, and my taste buds have adapted to eating less sweets, so factor that in.  Most recipes call for about 1-1/2 cups of sugar in a pie of this sort, but I cut it down to 1/3 cup...and then added in another tablespoon or so as insurance an afterthought.  So essentially I used a scant 1/2 cup sugar total, and it was just fine.  So fine and so yummy that I am declaring it my favorite thing!

Rhubarb-Strawberry Pie 
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Lower Sugar)

2-1/2 cups chopped rhubarb (½-inch pieces)

2-1/2 cups strawberries (sliced into halves or quarters is probably best;mine were whole frozen so I didn't bother)

Zest of half a lemon, freshly grated (I pare off a thin part of the lemon rind and chop it very fine)

½ t. cinnamon

3 T. arrowroot and/or tapioca starch flour

1/3 cup + 2 T. sugar (or around a scant ½ cup)

Mix everything together thoroughly in a bowl and spoon mixture into prepared crust* in a pie plate.  (Fits nicely in a regular/shallow Pyrex pie plate).  I didn’t want a top crust, but if you want one, feel free to pop another crust on top and crimp the edges/cut slits.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then decrease to 375 for 40-50 minutes, or until it's bubbling nicely and the rhubarb is soft. You may need to cover the edge of the crust with foil if it’s browning too much. Cool at least one hour before serving (or longer, if you can stand it).  Enjoy!

*I use this gluten-free pie crust recipe but substitute either cold ghee or coconut oil for the butter.  Ghee is clarified butter, but the casein and lactose are removed in making it, which works for casein-intolerant folks like me.

Tuesday's Title

My creativity, when it comes to titles, has gone AWOL at this late hour.  When I get tired, I either cut right to the chase or get squirrely.  I think it's going to be a cut to the chase kind of night.

I took a look at the scraps littering the cutting mat from the Breathe quilt and decided to go ahead and make a mini.

Since I had lights and darks and reds lying there, I thought I'd try a log cabin block.  I couldn't remember ever making a log cabin block before.

The back:

Little loopy quilting.  I threaded the Juki with some shimmery, light gold Sulky 40 wt. 100% rayon viscose thread.  I fully expected to have to dink around with the tension, but whaddaya know, it was just fine.

I did a second mini with the "scraps left from scraps."  I've got to finish the binding on it and take pictures, maybe tomorrow.

[lack of segue here...see above re tired]

I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe the other day.  Here is how it starts:

You are not hallucinating.  That is bacon.

With the name, The Best Paleo Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie (In the History of Man), I had to make them.

Cut to the chase:  YUM!

Favorite Things Friday ~ Four Things

I have more than one favorite thing this week.

First, this bar from Harry & David.  It is really, really good.  Smooth, rich dark chocolate, with nary a hint of charcoal, which is what the hubs and I joke that the ultra-dark stuff can sometimes taste like.

The wrapper says it's "Deeper and more satisfying."  Well, I don't know about that.  Are we still talking about chocolate here?

I don't usually shop at Harry & David.  You all probably know that discount and thrift stores are more my scene, but here is where I tell you why I ventured into H&D in the first place:  Free coffee sample.  Try to act surprised.

However, I am glad to have found this chocolate (on sale) which does not have dairy ingredients, as that kind is hard to find.  Both Walmart and Target have recently stopped carrying the two other brands I really liked and could eat, darn it.

Number two favorite this week is—no surprise—another thrift store vintage fabric.  This one came from St. Vinny's.  One yard of 27" wide vintage Christmas fabric for, are you ready, 75 cents.  I know, right?

I love that vintage green!  The words and snowflakes are in a silver print.  It reminds me of the old glass ornaments with white or silver writing we had on the tree as a kid.

Third favorite is this old computer desk hauled up from the basement last month, which is now functioning as a nice potting bench in the garage.  Slide out the keyboard drawer and you can fit a whole flat of flowers on it.  And to think we were going to put this out at the curb.

Fourth, the new album by Band of Skulls.  I about wore out their first CD a couple years ago.  You might recognize their music from this Ford Mustang commercial.  For a three-piece band, they can both rock it out and do mellow, sweet harmonies.  Here's one of the softer tunes.  If you make it to the four-minute mark, there is a blasting 30-second guitar solo, followed by some smooth fretwork that soothes everything out once again.  I love surprises like that in music.

This post has been brought to you by Favourite Things Fridays at Quilting in My Pyjamas.  Drop in for a visit or link along!