Musings

I am sitting at my desk on this atypically bleak morning (for South Florida anyway) looking out at the marsh birds foraging on the banks of the canal and thinking about what I need to do today.  Most of it probably won't get done because I am STILL nursing this back muscle and I can't get more than 10 steps away from my heating pad without having seperation anxiety.

My website is still a disaster and I KNOW I need to get it back up and running but I have no patience for html hell even when I'm feeling just ducky!  I keep hoping the website fairy will show up and leave me a note with the link to a url with my brand, spanking new, COMPLETED websit on it.  I wonder if it works like the tooth fairy?  I'm fresh out of just pulled teeth but maybe she would accept a yougrt and passion fruit puree parfait instead?  Probably not........

I've got to submit 2 articles today...both of which have to get done (muscle relaxant stupor not withstanding).  I think I might be able to kill two birds with one stone on that one.  See, I need to submit a column for aprroval to the Cape Coral Breeze because I may be their foodie blog person.  Oh wow...that just gave me the best idea for a column title.  The Go-to Gourmet...I love it!  I would be answering readers questions about cooking/food and providing new recipes each week.  Then the other article is for http://www.ezine.com/ of course.  You can find my previous articles there; author name S. Jill Anderson.  I may be able to use the same article for both submissions if I write it correctly. 

There are enough post-its stuck all over my desk, monitor, printer, lamp, dog...anything within reach really...for me to redecorate a room.  I get an idea for a recipe or an article or just a reminder to pick up the dry cleaning and I scribble it down on one of those blasted squares and slap up where I'll see it.  Very low tech I know and not all that effective since I end up either losing them or throwing them away because I am the female version of MONK!  I generally go through them in the evening and enter what info I need to into my computer, make phone calls, add things to my calander and then toss them.  This week though, I just sit here staring stupidly at the screen until I fall face forward onto the keypad and wake up an hour later with QWERTY stamped into my forehead!

Of course there are still the books to think about.  I have TWO completed cookbooks that we self-published but I really NEED a publisher.  Moreover, I need the marketing a publisher can provide.  Write letters, make calls, send emails...beg shamelessly and yet, still no publisher.  I sent a letter to Rodale last week and haven't gotten any sort of reply.  This week I just don't care.  Next week I can go back to stressing about it.

I am a week behind on menu plans for my personal chef services clients.  Fortunately my clients have become my friends and they won't be leaving scathing messages on my voicemail.  It just makes me crazy (crazier?) to be behind on anything.  It is the disease of Frustrated Perfectionism that I suffer from;  a senseless malady of one's own making really.

The water in the canal is grey and cold and the tropical breeze that usually caresses the palm fronds is howling like a pissed off banshee and beating the crap out of them.  Here I sit...blogging in my bathrobe with two throw pillows and a blistering heating pad wedged into the hollow of my spine.  Truely a SLUG!  I feel like a hen on it's nest waiting to lay an egg.  Thank God I'm not.  Mine would pop out hardboiled.  Maybe next week I'll have no more use for this thing other than to use it as an incubator for homemade yogurt (as I saw Alton Brown do on his show one time).  My luck, I'd get ecoli or something!

Pudding It All Together

I mentioned yesterday that if this turned out good, I would post the recipe today.  You never know until you test since the reduced fat/no fat dairy products COULD affect the texture of the finished dish.  Plus, I'm always looking for ways to get the refined sugar out of desserts.  Since I don't advocate the use of artificial sweeteners (even though we all manage to get a hit of sucralose or aspartame from SOMEWHERE), playing with fruit purees or stevia based sweeteners may affect the quality of the finished product too.  I generally have good luck but every now and then even the best cooks drop a culinary bomb! 

I've been lucky lately with the stevia blends.  I haven't tried baking with them yet so I don't know how well they'll do.  However, for puddings or fruit sauces or things of that nature that you can sweeten AFTER removing from the heat...they are working out great.  Once I've gotten over my kickboxing induced impairment and I can actually STAND without supporting myself on the counter, I plan to get in there and bake up something with some Truvia in it and see what happens.  I'm feeling rather scone-ish at the moment.  Oh rahhhther scone-ish...with a spot of jam and a steaming cup' o good Earl Grey!  It must wait until I can get off this blasted heating pad though.

In the meantime, these puddings I've been whipping up are quick and easy.  Their low calorie, fat and sugar counts make them even more appealing.  Plus, I am enourmously proud of the fact that they are NOT all junked up with sucralose and aspartame.  Oh, I don't know...I suppose if you don't mind a little chlorine with your sugar (sucralose) or some formaldahyde or ethinol (breakdown by-products of aspartame) in your chocolate pudding then knock yourself out (literally).  I digress.....

Back to the pudding....or as I said in the title....Pudding it all together.  I am discovering that using such greatly reduced butterfat products can prove challenging to texture and mouthfeel more than taste.  Sometimes you have to take a different approach in technique.  The classic Italian version of sweet polenta pudding has sweetened mascarpone either dolloped on top or lightly swirled through the warm pudding.  Well sure...with the cream and whole milk thats already in the body, the mascarpone is rather like "icing on the cake".  Its a stand alone ingredient.  With the lightened version, I found that actually melting the low fat whipped cream cheese into the hot polenta gave it the creaminess that it lacked from just being cooked in skim milk.  The drizzle of honey in the classic is yummy but superfilous.  The pudding is sweet enough without it.  Yes, you could a spoonful of all-fruit natural jam swirled through your pudding instead of my lighter strawberry coulis but again, we are back to calories and sugar that you really don't need to make this dessert work.  I actually preferred the simple strained strawberrie sauce.  The fresh, ever so slightly tart tang of the berries was a perfect foil for the thick, creamy polenta.  I've gone and made myself hungry now!  In any event...try it and see for yourself. 

Creamy Vanilla Polenta Pudding with Fresh Strawberry Coulis

2 cups organic fat free milk
pinch kosher salt
4 teaspoons Florida organic sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
1/2 cup (dry) non-gmo fine grain polenta
3 packets stevia blend sweetener (I use Truvia)
4 tablespoons low fat whipped cream cheese ( I use weight watcher's brand)
2 cups fresh hulled strawberries
1-2 additonal packets of stevia sweetener

In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan combine the fat free milk, kosher salt, sugar and vanilla bean.  When mixture begins to boil; gradually stir in polenta.  Cook 3-4 minutes; stirring constantly until polenta is thickened.

Remove from heat and discard vanilla pod.  Stir in 3 packets of Truvia and the low fat cream cheese.   Mix well; until cheese is melted.  You may add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract for extra vanilla flavor if desired.

Divide among 6 dessert dishes or ramekins and set aside while you prepare strawberry topping.

Place strawberries in blender or food processor and process until smooth.  You may need to add a few drops of water to help blend.  Strain out seeds and sweeten with 1-2 addtional packets of stevial sweetener. 
Swirl strawberry coulis into the warm polenta puddings.

Makes 6 servings
Each serving:  105 calories, 18g carbs, .5g fat, 1g fiber, 3g protein, 75mg sodium

*These puddings are so low calorie/fat that you can afford a nice dollop of low fat or fat free Greek style vanilla yogurt on top!  Don't forget to add the extra calories though.

(c) copyright Jill Anderson
The Homegrown Gourmet

Please Drink Responsibly

Some genius thought it would be a good idea for my stiff old body to try a little kickboxing.  While the amount of calories and consequently FAT to be burned is substantial, the price of all that exercise-y hoop laa is a bit high.  If someone asked me what I had for breakfast today, the answer would be..."Oh, a bowl of high fiber cereal and half a banana with some almond milk and good stiff coctail of geritol, muscle relaxers and prune juice...shaken...NOT STIRRED!

It is way difficult for a busy body like me to sit on my behind (with heating pad) all day nursing an overtaxed back muscle.  I want to MOVE and GROOVE and clean my house (compulsively) and gather dog blossoms from my backyard.  Well, maybe I don't exactly WANT to do that but I need to so the neighbors don't think I'm starting a fertilizer farm over here.  I want to get in my kitchen and mix up something...experiment...
create...develop.  I want to flex my culinary muscles until they are bulging and fierce and even the Iron Chefs would stand in awe before me and....and....

Sorry, I dozed off for a minute and I guess my fingers kept going.  That Geritol, Soma and Prune juice shooter sure packs a wallup!  Anyway,  there must be something about being "laid up" that makes you want creamy, warm, comforting stuff.  I'm thinking calling out to the drug store and having them deliver a WALKER so I prop myself up long enough to whip up a lil sump'n sump'n for dessert tonight.

I saw this wonderful (rich and high calorie) recipe for Sweet Polenta Pudding and I'm dying to try a lightened up, healthier version.  I adore polenta anyway...sweet or savory.  My husband always calls it "placenta" which kind of makes me feel like gagging.  I think he just does it annoy me.  So about the recipe...ok, its loaded with high calorie mascarpone cheese and full fat milk.  Plus white sugar AND honey AND apricot preserves.  I'm sure it tastes heavenly but I KNOW it exceeds my 200 calorie dessert rule by several hundred.  I'll let you know how it came out and post the recipe tomorrow.   You just go on and don't give a thought to me slaving away in the kitchen with my strained back muscle...all so YOU can have a new recipe!

I wonder if its too early for another coctail? 

Vegan Fudgy Espresso Brownies

I know...I know...I'm on a roll right? TWO desserts in two days! However, I did give my solemn vow that I would publish the Espresso Brownie recipe that is the most recent addition to my youtube video series. I actually had to make an emergency run to the supermarket last night to buy dark chocolate chips so I could make a batch today. My hubs claims he suffers withdrawal if he doesn't get brownies once every couple of weeks.

So I know you are wrinkling your noses right now saying "oh great...another recipe for tofu brownies" but there isn't a smidgen of tofu within the dense, gooey, insanely chocolaty (is that a word?) depths of these babies! You have my word on that and I was a Girl Scout back in the day. Don't worry if you aren't a vegan either. When I serve these nobody asks because they are too busy stuffing their faces.

I hope you have some industrial strength willpower because that is what it will take to keep you from eating half (or more) the pan. So, ladies and gentlemen and chocolate lovers of all ages I FINALLY present The Homegrown Gourmet's top secret Fudgy Espresso Brownie recipe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwIpmVhSqEI

Vegan Fudgy Espresso Brownies

3/4 cup organic spelt flour*

1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup organic tropical source** chocolate chips

1/4 cup melted organic extra virgin coconut oil

1 small organic banana, mashed

1/2 cup organic unbleached cane sugar (I use Florida Crystals)

1/2 cup coconut, almond or rice milk

2 tablespoons organic golden flaxseed meal (ground flax)

2 teaspoon pur vanilla extract

1 cup toasted, chopped nuts of choice (I LOVE hazelnuts in mine)

1-Preheat oven to 350.

2-Lightly grease an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan, line with parchment paper and then grease paper as well.

3-In a medium bowl; combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4-Place chocolate chips and coconut oil in a double boiler to melt chocolate. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir to blend, remove from heat.

5-Add mashed banana and sugar and espresso powder to melted chocolate mixture.

6-Combine flax meal with almond milk and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract.

7-Combine the milk mixture with the chocolate mixture. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet to the dry. Mix until no dry spots remain. Do not over mix.

8-Fold in nuts and turn batter out into prepared pan.

9-Bake 20-25 minutes or until a pick inserted 2 inches from the side of the pan comes out clean. If inserted in the center it should come out slightly sticky because the middle will still be soft.

10-Cool on wire rack. Turn out onto flat surface; remove parchment paper and cut into 12-16 squares.

I haven't done a nutritional analysis on these yet and calorie wise...we probably are better off NOT knowing! But, at least they are made with clean, healthy ingredients. I cannot be held responsible for their effect on your waistline!!

*I chose spelt flour because I actually like the texture it gives Vegan baked goods. Strictly speaking, if you are trying to avoid Gluten...you are out of luck. Contrary to popular myth, spelt IS a glutenous flour. However, it does have more fiber and protein the UABW (unbleached all purpose white). Plus if you have a specific allergy to wheat, spelt makes a great substitution. You can find spelt flour at most any health food store and some grocery stores now carry quite a few "specialty flours." If you need more info on spelt flour...just ask and I'll try to help you find it.

**Tropical source chocolate chips may be a new one on you. Pick up a bag of any commercial or store brand chocolate chips and check out the ingredient list. It is likely that you will see butter and milk listed there. Tsk...tsk....tsk! REAL quality chocolate should be made with cocoa butter. In tropical source chips, any oils added for emulsifiers/stabelizers will be palm and or coconut and NOT some hydrogenated nightmare. Hense the name...tropical source. Tropical oils (particularly coconut) can withstand extremely high temperatures without becoming rancid which make them ideal for cooking/baking. I really NEED to get to that coconut oil article very soon! Some supermarkets are now carrying tropical source chocolate chips and most health food stores have them. Again, if you need assistance you can write to me for a brand name and help finding it.

I suppose I shouldn't even mention how decadently delicious these are served WARM with a scoop of homemade Coconut Milk Vanilla Ice Cream. Nah... I won't say it. That would be torture!

(c) copyright Jill Anderson, The Homegrown Gourmet

Living Green with The Homegrown Gourmet: Skinny Panna Cotta

Living Green with The Homegrown Gourmet: Skinny Panna Cotta

Skinny Panna Cotta

Ok, can I just say that I am bursting with pride over my newest creation. Is there anything more fancy and enticing looking than a beautifully presented, delicate panna cotta with a triple berry sauce? The contrast between the white, velvety moulded pudding and the tart, electrically vibrant berries is a thing of wonder. Unfortunately, so is the calorie and fat content. You can FEEL your arteries backing up with every lucious bite!

It is simply not fair. I've been drooling over a particularly appealing picture of a Panna Cotta in one of my gourmet magazines for a couple of weeks now but my brain keeps reminding me that I am minus ten exceedingly stubborn pounds and not anxious to welcome them back! The other day I finally broke down and decided I HAD to try making a healthier version. Oh yes baby...WHO IS THE WOMAN??? It was fabulous (if I do say so myself). Plus, it was easy and that is always a bonus. My husband (who swears that skim milk and fat free yogurt are Kryptonite to his species) ate THREE servings before I broke down and told him. I would have had some pictures to post but he blew through 5 of the six servings so fast (the other one was mine) that I didn't get the oppoturnity to take any photos. Oh well, next time. I will definately be making this again and I think you will too. Enjoy!

* Note: This recipe is NOT vegetarian because I used unflavored gelatine. You can play around with agar agar powder as a gelling agent for a vegetarian version and can replace the dairy products with coconut milk and pureed young coconut meat for a fully vegan version.

Skinny Panna Cotta with Triple Berry Sauce

1 envelope plain unflavored gelatin

1 3/4 cups organic fat free milk, divided

1 cup organic fat free plain yogurt

1/2 cup organic reduced fat sour cream

1 vanilla bean, split or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons organic pure cane brown sugar, packed

6 packets stevia blend natural sweetener ( I use Truvia)

1 1/2 cups frozen, organic triple berry blend, thawed

1 teaspoon fresh lime zest

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Place 1/4 cup of the skim milk in a small bowl and sprinkle in unflavored gelatin. Do not stir. Allow the gelatin to "bloom" for 10 minutes. Measure 1/2 cup more of the skim milk into a small saucepan. Split the vanilla bean (if using ) and scrape seeds into milk. Measure brown sugar into milk and mix well. Heat mixture until bubbles begin to form around the sides of the pan. Do not boil. Remove from heat and whisk in 4 of the stevia natural sweetener packets. Whisk in bloomed gelatin until completely dissolved. When milk/gelatin mixture has cooled slightly; whisk in yogurt, sour cream and the remaining 1 cup of skim milk. The mixture will be slightly thickened. It is important to STRAIN the mixture to remove any undesolved gelatin and to achieve that beautiful, classic panna cotta texture. Divide strained mixture between six serving dishes. Chill at least four hours before serving.

Note: If you plan to serve in the traditional Panna Cotta style (unmolded), I recomment reducing the amount of skim milk by 1/4 cup for a firmer texture. Because of the lack of butterfat in the finished product, the custard as written above is slightly softer. I served mine in stemmed wine glasses so unmolding wasn't an issue. To unmold; ramekins must be quickly dipped in very hot water to loosen puddings and then inverted on serving plate.

Triple Berry Sauce

In a small bowl; combine thawed berries with 2 packets stevia natural sweetner blend, lime juice and lime zest. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Spoon berry sauce evenly over the 6 puddings.

Nutritional Content per serving: 95 calories, 14g carbohydrates, 6g protein, 1.5g fat, 0g fiber,

76 mg sodium

Update:  I made Panna Cotta again yesterday (Feb 18) so I'd have some pictures to post.  I hid Panna Cotta in the back of fridge till husband went to work so I'd actually have something to take a picture of!

(c) copyright Jill Anderson

The Homegrown Gourmet

Back in the Saddle (so to speak)

Hello friends,

After a ridiculously long hiatus, I am happy to report that I am BACK! As most of my friends know; we have FINALLY gotten moved. I will miss my Orlando friends terribly...but uhm...I will NOT miss Orlando! Thank you for all your cards and emails regarding my surgery. I am right as rain...no cancer. I am definately blessed. The move was grueling and we must have looked like a caravan of gypsies. Me, driving my husband's one and half ton truck AND pulling a u-haul trailer and he driving a full on SEMI and towing my Jeep behind. We are indeed here in lovely Cape Coral though. Can I just say, I love this place! Please check my facebook page for pictures of the house.

The next news item (one of significant importance) is concerning my website. As of right now there is NO homegrowngourmet.com to visit. Oh, I still own the domain but my previous hosting service was unsatisfactory and I changed as of January 1st. Well, wouldn't you know it...the one I chose (and I will not throw them under the bus by naming them) turned out to be WORSE than the old one. There was no live techinical support. For me that was a NIGHTMARE because we all know Jill is NOT a techie! Long story short, after three weeks of exchanging emails (because you can't actually talk to a REAL person on the phone), I finally got my domain hosting transferred to godaddy. The really rotten part of this whole debacle is that the content of my original site was NOT transferred. Sooooooooo...you got it...Jill is now doing what she detests more than anything in entire world. Building a NEW website. Thank heavens I had the foresight to save the content to my computer! Just think of all those recipes.

I apologize for the length of time the site has been unavailable. We have continued to post youtube videos but I have been unable to put the corresponding recipes on my website. My daughter (who IS quite blog savvy) tells me that I should just post them on the blog until my site is back up. DUH!!!! I knew there was a reason we spent so much money on that girl's college education.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I PROMISE that website will be back in action by next weekend. You know me and my love of HTML...don't expect miracles. In the meantime email me your questions at sjscates@aol.com or post your questions/suggestions or thoughts here on the blog. Another change to note is the phone number. It is just to difficult to catch me on the land line. If you need to speak with me on the phone, send an email to the above address and I will provide my cell phone number.

Stay tuned...the recipes and articles are coming back!

Health and Happiness to all,

Jill Anderson
The Homegrown Gourmet