Not much of a blizzard

OK, well, Snow-pocalypse 2011 was a non-starter. We did get some snow, but only about 6 or 8 inches.

I got a snow day, though, because although the office wasn't closed, we live on a class 3 road. That means that, tough the snow fell on Tuesday night, we won't be plowed until Friday sometime.

On the other hand, we think there have probably been enough 4-wheel drives and macho trucks up and down our road to make it possible to get to a plowed road and off to work this morning.

But it was only a sort of a snow day ... I was ready to leave for work until about 3pm, when I realized that even if the roads were cleared, it would be pointless to show up as most people who made it in were leaving.

So, about 3pm, I decided to start dinner. It turned out really well, so I thought I'd share the recipe. (I adapted it from a Cooks Illustrated recipe.) We can all use more grain free, filling recipes, right?.)

Italian Lentil Soup

Soak 1 cup of mixed lentils (I used brown lentils, lentils du puy, and red lentils) for a couple of days in clean water to immerses all of them. (I change the water every six hours or so, but I know a lot of people never change the water.)

Warm some olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot and add 1 medium chopped onion, three cloves of minced garlic, three stalks of chopped celery, and two or three bay leaves. Saute them gently until they're mushy.

Add three chopped carrots, 1/2 cup chopped rutabaga, 1/2 cup chopped parsnip, 1/2 cup chopped turnip and the lentils (drained). If you have a Parmesan rind, add it to the soup pot now.

Cover with vegetable broth, and let simmer until the vegetables start to soften.

(Make sure to keep the heat low--you just want them to simmer. Lentils cooked at a hard boil explode as soon as they're cooked, making something that more closely resembled lentil paste than lentil soup. You probably knew that, I just learned it.)

Add 1/2 chopped celeriac, 3-6 stems (a tablespoon or so) of thyme, and 2 cups of chicken stock (or vegetable stock, if you prefer--mushroom would be yummy!).

Only after the lentil have softened, add 1 pint of tomato sauce, salt and pepper to taste, and a couple of large handfuls of spinach.

Once the spinach has wilted and warmed through, you have soup.

I added garlic powder and hot sauce at the table. It it was pretty good before I added them and fantastic after.

Grain-free Chocolate Mud Cake

Grain-free Chocolate Mud Cake

5 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup honey
2 ounces cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup nut flour
1/4 cup coconut flour

Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients in a medium bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to to wet ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes, until the middle starts to firm up and leaves a toothpick slighly moist but not sticky.

Another gluten free pancake

Because of all the foods in the world, Jack loves pancakes.
He prefers Dad's Perfect Pancakes, but he'll take what he can get.

Tonight, while Dad was out on an Essential Oil errand, Jack annaounced that he was feeling enough for Dad's Perfect Pancakes or Mac and Cheese. We have already established that my mac and cheese isn't up to snuff, so he asked for Mamma's almost perfect pancakes.

We're out of almond flour and I wanted them done fast, so I found this recipe on Comfy Belly and Jack has paused devouring it long enough to proclaim them "really quite edible"...

FLUFFY COCONUT FLOUR PANCAKES

Ingredients (makes 5-6 silver-dollar-size pancakes)

• 3 large eggs or 4 small eggs
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil (or your oil of choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (I now reduce this to 1/4 teaspoon)
• 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of coconut flour
• fresh or frozen blueberries (optional)

Preparation

1. In a bowl, add all the wet ingredients and whisk together until well blended.
2. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and whisk mixture again until well blended and frothy – this will get them even fluffier!
3. Add additional olive oil or butter to a frying pan on medium to low heat and let warm for a few minutes. Next, pour the batter into small circles in the frying pan without letting the edges of each circle touch. Keep the heat fairly low and let the pancakes heat up slowly and rise – about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Wait until there are several bubbles appearing on top of the pancake circles and the edges are cooked, and then flip each pancake to cook the other side. This will not take long, so watch them carefully, and then move the pancakes onto another plate. Continue this until all the batter is gone.
5. Enjoy!

365 project update

I've missed two days. But I'm not going to stop. Instead I am going to cheat.

Now that I have my meds balanced again, and I have some energy, I am going to head outdoors and try to get at least three very different photos, and I will assign them to days 17, 18, and 19. If I can't do it all today, I'll try again tomorrow and again and again until I catch up. (It's -21C adjusted temperatures out there today, so even bundled up, my ability to stay out there will be limited. I don't own boots, for instance.)

I doing the 365 project in an attempt to improve my eye and my familiarity with my camera rather than as an endurance contest, so this will suit me just as well as having stuck it out -- but the key will be "very different photographs."

But meanwhile, I have been making a lovely warming ginger butternut soup and wholesome chocolate coconut candies to surprise the boys when they get home from the chess tournament.

Chocolate Coconut Candies

1 cup virgin coconut oil
1/2 vanilla bean
1-2 Tablespoons raw honey
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T almond butter
unsweetened dessicated coconut

Mix all ingredients together in a food processor until mixture is smooth. Drop by the tablespoon onto the dessicated coconut, then remove to parchment paper, and refrigerate until the candies are solid, then store in a covered container in the fridge.

Dairy Free Healthier Chocolate Pudding

Jack doesn't do well with cooked milk, so we have been experimenting with alternative puddings. Coconut works well fore cooked desserts, but this one is becoming a favorite of mine because it's quick, easy, and it tastes really nice.


Dairy Free Healthier Chocolate Pudding

serves 3

2 overripe bananas
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup chocolate powder
honey to taste

Put the peeled bananas and peeled and seeded avocados into the blender and cream them together.

Add the chocolate and blend it in.

Start adding honey and blending it in, stopping to taste every so often.

Rod likes it sweeter than I do, so I'll just let you decide how sweet is right. To me this tastes even better than milk-based puddings.

Madrid style fish tortillitas - adapted from Mark Bittman

In looking for other names for chickpea flour, I came across this recipe. It sounds wonderful!

Madrid style fish tortillitas

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup tepid water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion or scallions
About 1/2 cup fish, chopped fine
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped chives, parsley, thyme or cilantro
Olive oil.

1. In a bowl, combine flour with the salt and pepper. Add the water and stir to combine; consistency should resemble pancake batter (if batter is too thick, add more water, a little at a time). Let sit overnight.
2. Stir in the onions, chopped fish and herbs.
3. Put a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and film its bottom generously with olive oil. When oil is hot, pour in half the batter until it fills center of pan; spread gently with a spoon to form a large pancake.
4. Cook about 3 minutes, or until pancake is set around edges; flip pancake and continue cooking for another 3 minutes, then flip it again and cook for another 30 seconds or so, until it is crisp on outside but still moist inside.

Remove from pan and serve immediately, while remaining batter cooks.

Yield: 4 or more servings.

Or we could try this one for Panisse!

Misti's 365 Project: Day 3 (Also, Not a Pizza recipe)

Today's photo is of an experiment Rod made for dinner.

For the time being, we're referring to it as "not a pizza", because it was inspired by really wonderful pizzas Rod remembers from home, but it's not going to make the grade if you're looking for (name a popular pizza joint from your hometown).

But, really, it's much too nice to have a negative moniker, so this will eventually have a descriptive name.

This "not a pizza" is based on the socca sold by street vendors in Nice, but with a bit of egg added to make the crust a little less brittle than socca (so it's easier to pick it up without losing all the toppings).

So, how to do it:

Crust Ingredients
1 cup of chickpea flour (we grind our own, but it's called besan or gram flour in the South Asian/Middle Eastern shops)
1 cup tepid water
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 eggs
a pinch of salt
garlic powder to taste

Whisk the chickpea flour, water, and olive oil together and let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

After soaking, add the salt and garlic powder.
* If you're making flat bread, continue.
* If you're making the not a pizza, stop here and prepare the toppings.

Cooking Directions
Heat a cast iron griddle in a 500 degree (super hot) oven.
Whisk the eggs in another bowl until they're well mixed, then add them to the batter.

When the griddle and the oven are HOT, add a dollop of oil to the griddle and then pour the batter into the griddle getting it as even and round as you can.

* Cook at 500 degrees for 7 minutes to eat this as a bread side, then brush the socca with olive oil and broil it for the last minute or so broil it.


Toppings

You can pretty much use any toppings you'd like on pizza here, but I'll tell you where we started.

1/2 cup of seeded, finally diced fresh tomatoes (roma work really well).

1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped olives

2 teaspoons fresh, crushed rosemary

1/2 cup shredded cheese

Put everything but the cheese into a single bowl and mix it up so you get an even topping.

After the crust has been cooking for 4 minutes, spread the topping evenly over it.

Switch the oven to broil and broil for another 3 minutes.

After three minutes, spread the cheese over the whole thing, and broil until the cheese is melt and just starting to brown.

Done. Serve hot.

Vegetables for one: Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of olive oil (You might still have last week's in the fridge)
pinch of salt
1.\/2 cauliflower

Instructions
1. Break the cauliflower into similar sized florets.
2. Toss the cauliflower in the olive oil to coat.
3. Remove the cauliflower from the oil to a roasting pan. (Refrigerate the oil to use again tomorrow.)
3. Salt the cauliflower lightly.
4. Roast the cauliflower at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until soft and starting to brown.

Put the cauliflower in a serving bowl (or plate) and serve.

This method also works really well for carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, eggplant, parsnips, and rutabaga.

This series is to help out folks who know they should eat more vegetables but just aren't sure how to prepare vegetables in interesting ways.

Every Thursday, I plan to offer a recipe for a different vegetable or a different preparation style to help you expand your vegetable options without either working too hard or being bored to death.

Chicken Korma Recipe

I found this recipe and want to give it a try. Storing it here so I can find it again.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken,
1 heaped tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup plain yogurt, drained slightly
1 dried red chilli
2 finely chopped onions
1 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp ground coriander
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
water
75g creamed coconut
salt, to taste
2 heaped tbsps almond flour
finely chopped Coriander Leaves, to garnish
juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken cut into pieces
2. Mix the chicken with the ginger, garlic and yogurt. Cover and marinade for 12 hours or more.
3. Liquify the onion and chillies, add a little water if you need to. blend til smooth.
4. Heat the ghee in a saute pan.
5. Add the ground coriander, ground black pepper, turmeric and garam masala. Saute for about 1-minute over low heat.
6. Turn up the heat, add the onion and chilli paste and saute for 10-minutes.
7. Add the chicken and the marinade and continue to cook for another 10-minutes.
8. Add the creamed coconut and enough water to *just* cover the chicken and bring to a simmer, stirring until the coconut is dissolved. Stir in the ground almonds.
9. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is cooked.(30-40 minutes).
10. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and salt to taste. Mix well.

New Years Cheesecake

Rod’s Ceesecake- first run

Crust-
This recipe makes two crusts, I eyeball these so they are at best approximate measures.

1 pound walnuts, ground fine. (can use any nut meal here, but walnuts taste fantastic)
½ cup coconut oil
½ cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon cake spice
½ teaspoon ground ginger (could actually do with a bit more, but that’s what I used this time).

Grease two pie plates.
Add the spices and molasses to the walnut flour.
Melt the oil and honey together, and pour over the walnut mixture.
Combine with a wooden spoon until everything is mixed to a smooth consistency. If it looks too moist, you might add some coconut flour here, optimal consistency has it almost dry enough to crumble, but not quite.
Press half the mixture into each pie plate, taking the time to get it even and pushed up to cover the sides.

Filling for one cheesecake.
1 Pound cream cheese (2 x 8 oz packs)
½ cup heavy cream
2 eggs
½ cup Maple syrup (we didn’t have sugar in the house)
Zest of a lemon
Juice of a lemon

Beat the cream-cheese until its fluffy- if you are doing this by hand, beat it until you’ve just about given up on it, add the cream and it will fluff beautifully.
Add the cream if you haven’t already done so.
Add the sugar (maple syrup, whatever you are using for sweet)
Add the zest and the lemon juice… I used about a tablespoon of each
Add the eggs and mix to combine well.

Pour mixture into piecrust and cook until the middle is nearly set. (40 minutes at 350 works except the crust is a bit singed, I’ll try 325 next time ).

Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours minimum before serving.

Vegetables for one: Gingered carrots

Gingered carrots

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of olive oil

pinch of salt

2 carrots

2 tablespoons of honey

1 teaspoon of butter

ginger to taste (grated fresh or powdered)

Instructions

1. Chop the carrots into similar sized pieces.

2. Toss the carrots in the olive oil to coat.

3. Remove the carrots from the oil to a roasting pan. (Refrigerate the oil to use again tomorrow.)

3. Salt the carrots lightly.

4. Roast them at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until soft and starting to brown.

5. Once the carrots are cooked, melt the butter in a small pan.

6. When the butter is melted, add the honey and stir to blend.

7. Add the ginger a little at a time, tasting after each addition.

(We like 1 tablespoon of fresh *or* a teaspoon of ground. But that's a lot.)

Put the carrots in a serving bowl (or plate) and pour the sauce over them.

YUM!

***

This series is to help out folks who know they should eat more vegetables but just aren't sure how to prepare vegetables in interesting ways.

Every Thursday, I plan to offer a recipe for a different vegetable or a different preparation style to help you expand your vegetable options without either working too hard or being bored to death.

Sausage Making: Beef Sausage

Rod's Beef Sausage recipe

3.5 pounds of beef roast (sirloin tip)
.75 pounds beef tallow
2 teaspoons kosher sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon granulated onion

Cut the roast and tallow into 1-inch cubes and layer it with the mixed herbs and spices. Run it through the grinder and into casings. (We used natural casings from the butcher.)

(We ground it twice, but it wasn't nearly as nice in texture as had hoped.)

Tonight's experiment: Black Bean Brownies

Black Bean Peppermint Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

¼ cup butter
¼ cup coconut oil

6 eggs

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 cups black beans, pureed

2 1/2 tablespoons coffee

10 drops peppermint flavouring
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil or butter an 8-inch baking pan. Melt chocolate and butter or oil together in small saucepan. In mixing bowl, beat eggs and maple syrup together. Add melted chocolate mixture and beat well. Beat in bean puree and coffee substitute. Fold in nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until set. If you press your finger in the middle, it should make a little dent. Don't overbake. Cool. Cut into 2-inch squares.
Yield: 16

It's beginning to look a lot like ...Solstice!

I am down to the very last few cards I need to make -- the ones I spend the most time on and probably should have started last June. I hope they're on time...or, if they're not, I hope the recipients likes them enough to forgive me.

Snow has finally fallen, and the cold has finally set in. It's so hard for me to feel ready for the holidays when the last of the hardy flowers are still hanging on. Now that we're buried in what some are calling Killer Storm 2010, I can really believe that the dark times are almost over. Good thing, too, because we're having out Yule gathering next weekend and I have a ritual to write!

I find that I am finally in the mood for the holidays. And just in time comes a recipe from Organic and Thrifty for grain free hazelnut gingerbread. Hmmmm...maybe I'll add gingerbread to the dessert table along with the pumpkin pie I've started.

Because I have to say, I feel so much better since we've gone off grains, but I do miss baking cookies and eating festive holiday desserts.


Hazelnut Gingerbread

Preheat the oven to 325. Lightly grease a pie plate or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor, whip together:

3/4 c. butter at room temp
1/3 c. honey
1/6 c molasses

Add:

3 cups hazelnut (or almond) flour
1 cup arrowroot flour
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

The dough should have the texture of sugar cookie dough (if it seems to "wet", add a bit more arrowroot powder). If you wish to roll out the biscuits and cut them into circles (or any fun shape, for that matter!) I'd advise chilling it briefly to make it a little more workable. Otherwise, pour it into pie plate and smooth to even so it can be served in wedges.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until browned on top.

Doesn't that sound yummy? Wedges of gingerbread with ginger whipped cream on top and a cup of home made eggnog? And later a decadent, rich slice of pumpkin pie with maybe some mulled wine.

Yeah. I'm ready for the holidays now. :)

Oooh! Raw fruit cake -- grain free!!!

A raw, gluten-free fruit cake from Mothering Magazine!

1 cup dates
1 cup raisins
1 cup prunes
1 cup pecans
1 cup walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut
Honey

Place the dates, raisins, and prunes in a food processor and mix until combined well. Finely chop the nuts and then mix them along with the coconut, by hand. Add enough honey to moisten then place into a cake pan or mold of your choice. Turn out onto a cake plate and serve!I LOVE fruitcake! :) Maybe it's not off the list after all!

Another recipe I want to try

This comes from Corinna Borden at The Ann Arbor News.

Ginger, Garlic and Chili Pepper Soup
5 cups or so of pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potatoes or squash
about 1 quart broth (to cover)

1 large onion
1 12 ounce can of coconut milk
4 tablespoons of peanut butter
8 garlic cloves
1 medium ginger root (about the size of your palm)
4 hot chili peppers
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Lime juice, pumpkin seed oil, and toasted peanuts for garnish

It is better to do sequential small batches in the blender, rather than trying to fit in as much as you can.

Chop the ginger, garlic and chili peppers.

Place them at the bottom of a soup pot with the oil and turn on low.

While those are sautéing, chop the onion and throw it in as well.

While those are softening and filling your kitchen with a swoon-worthy aroma, chop the pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and squash and add them to the pot.

Add enough water or broth to cover the cooking tubers and squash, add the coconut milk, add the peanut butter, put the lid on the pot, and leave it alone until the pumpkin and potatoes are cooked.

(About 45-60 minutes).

In small portions, blend the soup together. Serve with lime juice, pumpkin seed oil and toasted peanuts for garnish.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I hope your Thanksgiving was as marvelous as ours was!

We spent most of the day preparing the feast -- including a turkey that Rod suprised me with after we agreed that a turkey simply wasn't in the budget this year.

But Rod know that for me, Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without a turkey. (He's heard my "hotdogs for Thanksgiving" story often enough...) So he sought out a smaller bird, and not as high quality--and by gum, we had our turkey!

To that we added what feastables we had in the house or garden -- cranberry raspberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, a medly of carrots, beets, and butternut. (I had only one pan left, so we cooked them together. They were pretty, but I have to admit that it could have been a Valentines day dinner, so red and white was our feast.) We followed it up with pumpkin chocolate pie in a walnut crust.

It was the first holiday meal I can remember making in which everything turned out and it all came to the table at the same time!

After dinner, we made new leaves for our Gratitude tree and posted those.

And then, finally, we worked on our holiday cards. Jack got all of the card he has finished autographed and sealed into envelopes. I got mine as far as into envelopes, but I still have to finish putting the appropriate greeting on each one.

(I found Merry Christmas and God Jul stamps this year, so more of my friends can have the greeting appropriate to what they're celebrating. Next year I hope to add Hanukkah -- though Kwanzaa will wait until I know someone who celebrates it.)

Then Jack has six more cards to complete his list and I have *16*!!! I thought I was just about done, but no.

While I was looking for a walnut pie crust recipe, I came across this:

Sweet Walnut Crust:
1 cup walnuts
¾ cup chopped dried apricots
¼ [2-3] chopped dates, or raisins
1/3 cup maple syrup

Place the first three ingredients in the food process and process into a moist meal. While the processor is running slowly pour in the agave until the mixture turns into a ball. Press sweet crust into 9-inch pie dish to form piecrust.

It sounds Amazing! We didn't have the ingredients to make it this time...but maybe for Yule.

This was the pie recipe we settled on:

Walnut Pie Crust:

2 cups of ground nuts
3 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons cake spice

Mix well and press into two buttered pie pans.

Pumpkin Custard Filling

2 cups (cooked) pureed pumpkin
9 pastured egg yolks, beaten
1 cup of grass-fed heavy cream
1 cup of grass-fed sour cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg, ground
1/3 of a vanilla bean, ground
pinch of sea salt
1 ounce of baking chocolate
2 ounces dark, semi-sweet chocolate
a small handful of raw coco nibs

Mix the all ingredients except the chocolate until they're light and fluffy and almost ready to peak.

Whir the chocolate in the food processor until it's little pebbles.

Stir the chocolate into the pumpkin foam.

Topping
a handful of walnuts
a handful of pecans
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Warm the nuts, sugar and spices until the sugar is melted into the butter and it all smells faintly of caramel, making sure to stir well so that the nuts are covered.

Pour the pumpkin into the crusts. Drizzle the toping over it.
Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.

It turned our amazingly well!

Smiffy's breakfast eggnog

It's cold again, and around here, that frequently means' eggnog for breakfast. Not the kind you get in a carton in the grocery store -- that's yummy, but not very healthy. We make out own raw eggnog once a week or so. It's easy, it's yummy, and it really sticks with us.

And it's raw -- in our world, raw foods are a good thing.

This serves three of us, 2 cups each.

Ingredients:
6 raw egg yolks from pastured hens (I truly wouldn't use grocery store eggs for this. That's dangerous.)
2-3 ounces of raw honey
1 pint whole raw milk
1 cup raw heavy cream
1/2 nutmeg (freshly grated if your using a blender)

1 inch of vanilla bean (freshly grated if your using a blender)
6 raw egg whites from pastured hens

Directions:
In a vita-mix or blender, whip the egg yolks until they lighten in color.

Add the honey and continue to beat until completely blended.

Add the milk, cream, nutmeg and vanilla.

Whip some more.

When the spices are completely pulverized and mixed in, add the egg whites.

When they're completely incorporated, serve.

If you can't get pastured eggs, here's a recipe for cooked eggnog.

Rod's sesame "almost toast"

A few days ago, Rod came up with this one. A "bread" that works as a base for "bread and jam" or with bacon and eggs, and other places where you want a carrier for another flavour. I tried it, and even I could get it to come out correctly.
2 eggs
1/4 cup of sesame seeds (we used raw)
2 tablespoons of potato flour
optional 1 tablespoon of guar gum

Whisk it all together and pour it into a frying pan like a pancake. Cook it on both sides, again, like a pancake. It's tasty when cold, but it also keeps in a warm oven while you make the rest of the oven.

It's a tad bland but with a mild "toasty" flavour, which is fine, if you're using it as a carrier for a stronger flavour, which is what we've been missing.

Pumpkin Pudding recipe

1 medium pie pumpkin, seeded and roasted
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon "cake spice"
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup whole cream milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3 large eggs

Whisk together the sugar, salt, and spices in bowl until smooth.

Blend in the pureed squash, milk, sour cream and eggs.

Pour into a buttered casserole dish.

Bake until the center is almost set, about 55 minutes, depending on the depth of the casserole.

Beautiful for dessert -- or breakfast!