You can make these raw (with a dehydrator) or cooked.  I find that lower temperatures lead to a wetter bar and higher ones to a cakier one.  But the proportion of ingredients changes that up too.  If you do a very thorough blending job you end up with something like a Lara Bar, or you can leave the mix more chunky, which gives it more character.

I started using sunflower seed butter (aka sunbutter) a few months ago and discovered that they give the bars a chocolate-like look, mouth-feel, and even some taste.  Since chocolate is the worst of Miriam’s food intolerances, that’s a really cool find.

Here’s the version of this recipe I used for a submission to the baked goods, bar cookies, competition at the Sonoma County Fair last week.

Recipe:

Sunflower seed butter (sunflower seeds, cane sugar, salt), 16 oz
Raw cashews, 2 cups
Dates, 14 oz
Ginger root, fresh, 2 TB
Cinnamon, 2 tsp
Cardamon, 1 tsp
Vanilla extract (vanilla, organic alcohol), 1 TB
Sea Salt to taste
Water as needed

Don’t worry about the amounts of the main ingredients.  I used full containers so that’s what it came out as.  My sunbutter is from Trader Joe’s.  The dates are pitted deglet noor dates in a pre-packed container from Whole Foods.  You can use any kind as long as they’re fresh (don’t use dried date pieces, the ones that look like elongated pellets).  For the cashews, I just poured them into the empty sunbutter container to measure (and to scoop out residual butter).

As for the flavorings, those amounts are guesses.  I did a lot of add and taste, add and taste again.  I will note though that the batter was spiced beautifully but the bars came out very mild; the spices were in the background.  When I do it again, I’ll double (or triple) the amounts.  If they come out nice and strong I’ll call them gingerbread bars, but I was careful with the naming for the contest because I didn’t want them to be judged that way when they were so mild.

Chop the ginger root and put it in the food processor first.  You want to make sure it’s well processed.  Now add your other ingredients and blend until smooth.  If you want a chunkier bar, take some of the cashews and process them before anything else and turn out to a bowl when they’re at the right consistency.  Do this in as many batches as it takes for the size of your food processor.

Date notes: take the time to feel each one with your fingers before putting it in the processor.  I usually find one pit for every 2 containers or so.  And there are often the little end caps left on.  Just one of these things will spoil your entire batch if left in.

Ingredients in the food processor

Why add water if your goal is to bake or dehydrate out the liquid?  Because food processor motors can only handle so much and it helps the mix come together.  Don’t add too much water or baking will take forever and the bars will be overcooked and thin.  I used perhaps a cup total for this batch, which is more than I usually need but my ingredients may have been dryer than normal.  Just add a small amount at a time, as needed.  Don’t measure because the amount you need will vary based on a lot of factors.

When it’s ready, mix in a bowl if needed, and turn out into a baking pan.  You want the mix to be about 3/4 or 2/3 inches deep.  My pan was enamelled so I did nothing to it but you may want to lightly oil a less smooth pan.

Bar mix ready to go into the oven

I baked at 250*F for about an hour.  I prefer lower temps (150*F) for longer periods of time but of course I waited until evening of the night before the Fair contest to start these.  Check often for burning (if you bake at a higher temp, they are easy to overcook).  At lower temps you may need to flip them part way through to dry out the bottoms.

They came out perfect.  When I use less cashew and bake at a lower temperature I get more a fudge-like bar.  These surprised me by coming out cakey.  In fact, Michael just assumed I used flour.  They tasted like they had flour to me too.  They were still great, even if they weren’t what I expected.

I chose the six best bars for the contest.  The recipe made about 3 times this amount.  Those were good sized bars too.

Finished bars ready for Fair delivery

So…did I win anything?  Nope.  I wasn’t really expecting to.  Aside from a touch of sugar in the sunbutter, the only sweetener was the dates.  These weren’t really dessert bars, they were snack bars.  And if you were a judge tasting cookie after cookie and suddenly came upon a low-sugar one, it would taste flat to you.  I think they were delicious (and so did Miriam and Michael) but they weren’t really right for this contest.

I don’t know where I fell but there were 12 entries in the “bar cookie: other” category and I didn’t get one of the 5 prizes.

County Fair display case

These bars were great for just eating but even better heated up in the toaster oven and served under vanilla ice cream (vegan of course).

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I got my chance May 8, 2009.  I announced the meal as vegan and gluten-free (the other meals there are vegetarian or vegetarian plus some fish), planned a menu, and set to work.  I quickly realized that, while my cooking skills are pretty good, my catering skills are quite lacking.  It didn’t help that we were never sure exactly how many people would show up (RSVPs are due two days before, but they’re flexible).

I planned for 20, got 18 (equivalent of 15 since several were small children), and cooked enough for 30.  Whoops.

A few folks lingering over dinner

After many years of cooking Passover Seders for upwards of 20 people, I have learned the trick of saving complex or new recipes for smaller venues.  Everything I made was simple to moderate and something I’d cooked many times before.

The Menu:

Chili-Cornbread Casserole
Roasted vegetables (red beets, golden beets, rutabaga, & leek with rosemary)
Green salad (romaine, cherry tomato, daikon radish, carrot, orange cauliflower, & mustard balsamic dressing)
Fresh strawberries with cashew cream
Challah (from masa) with sesame seed & oatmeal

Chili Cornbread Casserole

The good news is the food all came out fabulous.  No mishaps at all.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that.  The bad news is we had some disasters with the timing.  One of the disadvantages to cooking a large meal outside of your home is that you tend to forget things.  Well, Michael and I left a box of miscellaneous items behind.  Unfortunately, they were essential items for both of the dishes I had to finish up and bake in the synagogue kitchen.

Michael running home to get it set us back about 45 minutes, and we were already running 15 minutes late.  So everything was pushed back an hour (which means at least my time estimates were dead on).  The challah also took longer than expected, even though I had deliberately made them thinner than usual so they’d cook faster.

Salad and strawberries

All in all, I’d call it a success.  The next time I get the chance to cook for a crowd, I’ll have a clearer idea of amounts.  And hopefully the timing will work out better.

Roasted root vegetables

For anyone interested in the amounts of ingredients I used and what it all cost, check out my blog entry Catering Lessons: The Cost of Cooking for 30.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Start with the right pumpkins.  Your fabulous jack-o-lantern is not a good candidate, not even a fresh, uncarved one.  Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are bred for looks.  The inside is watery and does not taste very good, though it’s technically edible.  Your compost pile or worm bin will love it though.

Our pumpkins came from the pumpkin farm across the street from us, the Peterson Farm.  They grow several varieties, including the jack-o-lantern type.  We got my favorite, the Cinderella Pumpkin (which Michael is cutting up below).  It gets its name from the deep color and carriage shape.  Plus a couple others, including the pumpkin pie pumpkin, which looks like a smaller version of a jack-o-lantern.

Instead of carving, we displayed them outside in our Sukkah and for Halloween.  They lasted just fine for a few weeks outside in the cold (not freezing) and rain.

Michael cuts a cinderella pumpkin in half

Wash the pumpkin and cut it into manageable chunks, then remove the seeds with a fork.  Roast the seeds later.  You can leave the gooey insides part (remove for jack-o-lanterns but don’t bother with other pumpkins). Cut the pumpkin sections further to good baking chunks (not too small or they’ll be a pain to peel).

Cutting the pumpkin into pieces (picture by Miriam Norwitz)

We had three pumpkins and made three big trays of pumpkin chunks.

Chunks of pumpkin ready for baking

Roast them until they are soft all the way through, but not burnt.  Pretty much any temperature will do.  Go ahead and put them in while cooking something else.  At 350*F, expect it to take about an hour.  But don’t go by timing: poke your pumpkin with a fork often.

Pumpkin fresh from the oven

The only hard parts are cutting up the really big pumpkins and taking the skin off (okay, removing the skin isn’t hard, but it’s tedious).  Do this after the pumpkins are cooked and when they are cool enough to handle (I left these out overnight).  Pull off any burnt parts and peel or slice away the skin.  Don’t worry about bits of skin that are left with the flesh.  A small amount is fine.

Important note: The juicier pumpkins will have liquid in the tray and drip more as you peel them.  Lightly wring out the flesh before using.  But don’t toss that liquid.  I save it (in the fridge or freezer) and use it as an easy soup stock.

Peeling cooked pumpkins

Take the pumpkin flesh and put it in the food processor.  In batches if you need to.  Process until smooth.  I put the various batches into one big bowl since there were different pumpkin varieties and I wanted to mix them.  This is the result.

Pumpkin Puree

Anything you don’t use right away, freeze.  It freezes very well with little to no loss in taste or texture.  I like to measure it into 2 cup containers (zipper bags work but I prefer Pyrex storage containers (that’s glass with a tight plastic lid) if I have enough of them).  That way I only have to defrost exactly what I need for a recipe.

Now what do you do with it?  Pumpkin pie is the obvious first choice.  I’ve also used it to thicken vegetable stews. When I could eat dairy and eggs, the puree was fabulous in pumpkin cheesecake.  Although most of us think dessert when we think pumpkin, the truth is its a wonderful savory food too, and it’s lowcarb, the lowest of all the winter squashes.

As for more things to do with pumpkin puree, I’m stuck.  If you have a good recipe, please link to it in the comments.  I still have 10 cups worth to use up.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving 2007

Because I couldn’t find one perfect recipe, I used the crust from one and the filling from another. Actually, Michael did the work.

Lowcarb notes: we’ve made this pie (filling and crust) with xylitol instead of sugar and it works fine.  Leave out the molasses.

We decided to triple the recipe this year but somehow ended up with 4 pies (and 6 crustless cupcakes we made for a nut-allergic friend).  We used small/medium springform pans.

The crust:

From:
http://www.somethinginseason.com/2007/10/pumpkin-pie-from-scratch-part-1.html
(note: this lovely site has been shut down)

Basic recipe:
2 cups whole pecans (you can substitute walnuts if you like)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Michael processing pecans

I used pecans and organic cane sugar and flaxseed goo for the egg (1 tablespoon fine flax meal in 1/4 cup water, nuked for a minute then left to cool). You simply grind it all in the food processor and then press it into the pan. Cover the bottom and an inch or more along the sides with a good thick crust (1/4″ or so).

Crusts ready for filling

The filling:

From: http://www.tazarat.com/results.asp?id=33

Basic recipe:
3/4 lb firm tofu
1 (16 oz) can pumpkin puree or 2 cups fresh-cooked pumpkin
1 cup Sucanat (organic evaporated cane juice/cane sugar) or brown sugar
2 TB oil
2 TB molasses
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ginger powder or 1.5 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Michael & Miriam measuring pumpkin puree

We used homemade pumpkin puree (from Peterson pumpkins) which I measured into 2 cup bags and froze. For the sugar, we used organic cane sugar. Michael used 4/5 of a cup instead of a full one in 2007 but we forgot in 2008 and used the full amount.  The pies tasted great and weren’t too sweet. The oil was sunflower (also oiled the pan with it). Instead of ginger powder, we used twice as much grated (both fresh and frozen work well) ginger.  In 2008, we couldn’t find nutmeg in the pantry so substituted cardamon (yum…I think we’ll have to do both next year).

Pumpkin pie filling

You just food process and/or mix everything and pour it on the crust. Spread out evenly.

Filling the crusts (picture by Miriam Norwitz)

The directions say to cook for 1 hour at 350*F, until cracks appear.  But this isn’t nearly long enough.  The filling takes 1.5 to 2 hours; unfortunately, the crust starts to burn after you pass 1 to 1.5 hours.  The secret is to turn off the oven after an hour or so, before you get that burnt smell, but leave the pies inside where it is warm.  The filling will continue to set.  If your oven doesn’t hold heat well, leave it on a low temperature (like 200 or 250).

The good news is that overcooking the crust actually tastes good.  People liked it even when it was burnt, though it was better when it was just caramelized.  Just keep an eye on it and you’ll be fine.

Pumpkin pie display

This is a rich pie with plenty of spice, but still a good pumpkin flavor. It is softer than your usual pumpkin pie but part of that is regular pies have a very firm crust that holds the filling (this crust doesn’t do that at all). The texture is good. All in all, it was a success.

I made a cashew cream to go with it. The cream was also a huge hit. It was great on it’s own but even better with the pie. They went together superbly.

Pumpkin pie with cashew cream

Note: Recipe rewritten with new pictures 11/08.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Cranberry sauce is one of those dishes that is so easy to make I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it. Especially given that the canned stuff is so bland and without texture.  You do want to use organic cranberries here, as chemically-grown berries tend to be high in pesticides.  2008 was not a good year for cranberries and they were horribly expensive.  Fortunately, you don’t need a lot of them (1 lb served over a dozen people).

This recipe freezes extremely well. It also lasts in the fridge for a long time. I froze a batch leftover from Thanksgiving 2006 and served it for Thanksgiving 2007 with very little reduction in taste or texture.  I used the recipe again for Thanksgiving 2008.

Ingredients:

Fresh cranberries, 1 bag (about 16 oz)
Fresh lemon zest from 2 small lemons (organic only)
Fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon (2 if not juicy)
Fresh ginger root, grated, 1-3 teaspoons
Salt, pinch
Stevia, pinch or two (optional)
Organic cane sugar, as desired
Water as needed

In 2008 I used 3 TB sugar and no stevia and ended up with perfect sauce that was not very sweet (which is how we like it).  In 2006/7 I used a bit less sugar and some stevia.  In 2008 I also used 3 TB water to thin out the sauce a bit.  How much water you need (if any) will vary a lot based on how juicy the berries are, how much you cook it, how much sugar you use, etc.

Rinse the cranberries in water and drain.

Put into an empty pot on the stove and heat gently while stirring until the cranberries start to soften.

Zesting a lemon over cranberries

Add stevia and sugar to desired sweetness. The stevia is optional but will help reduce the overall sugar level. I end up using about half of what is called for in a traditional cranberry sauce that also has a sugar boost from orange juice. Don’t use all or mostly stevia as the dish will be too bitter (I love stevia but it doesn’t mesh well with lemons).

Add salt, lemon, and ginger.

Stir and cook until the cranberries start to pop open and the texture is to your liking. Mash a bit if you wish or leave mostly whole. Adjust sweeteners/seasoning if needed.  If the flavors aren’t coming together, you probably need a touch of salt.

This cranberry sauce makes a great traditional accompaniment to turkey or other Thanksgiving fixings. It’s also good as leftovers with a variety of foods as a condiment. Miriam enjoyed dipping carrots in it. And for Thanksgiving 2007, some people ate it straight as a dessert.

Finished cranberry sauce

Note: Recipe rewritten with new pictures 11/08.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I made the cashew cream to go with a vegan pumpkin pie I took to a Thanksgiving Potluck in 2007 and again in 2008, though it’s delicious on anything sweet.

Recipe:

2 cups raw cashew pieces (I keep them in the freezer)
Juice of one small lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Dash or two of white stevia powder (or use a another sweetener if you prefer)

Soak the cashews overnight (anything between 4 and 24 hours is fine).

Drain and rinse the nuts and blend them with as much water as they need.  You may need to do this in several batches.

Michael & Miriam blend the cashews

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Keep blending, then stop and use a spatula regularly to get it all. Make sure it is very smooth.  Don’t be afraid to add water, but taste the cream frequently to make sure you aren’t over doing it.  If the blender is strong, the nuts will cream up and absorb the extra liquid.  If not, you’ll have a somewhat gritty cream (which won’t take too much liquid, so be aware) but it will still taste good.

Finished cashew cream

Serve as you would whipped cream.  It will keep in the refrigerator for several days.

Cashew cream over pumpkin pie

Note: Recipe rewritten with new pictures 11/08.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

First, I collected 24 hours worth of fallen apples.

Apples in bowls waiting for processing

Next, I cut away the bad parts (nice organic, untreated, apples with some worms, impact bruising, and other spots) and cut the apples into quarters.

Cut apples

Then I trimmed out all the cores and any bad spots I missed.  I like my sauce with skins left on.  They add more depth of flavor, nutrition, and don’t change the texture much.  Plus it saves a ton of time.

Toss some fresh lemon juice in the bowl to reduce browning.

Apples ready for the cook pot

Cook on low heat and stir every few minutes.  After a few minutes, they look like this.  Add a touch of salt to help them fall apart.  If you’re adding sweetener or spices, this is a good time.

A few more minutes and they’ll look like this.  If you want apple butter, cook them even longer.

Apples ready to be made into sauce

Now you can turn them into sauce.

First though, here’s how not to sauce them.

A ricer doesn't work on applesauce

The ricer seemed like a good idea at the time.  But it took a whole lot of pressure just to come up with mostly liquid.  It helped to swap the end-piece for one with bigger holes, but only marginally.  So, off to the food processor we went!

Cyndi putting the cooked apples into the food processor

Don’t overload the food processor.  And just pulse the apples a few times so you don’t over process them.  I like my applesauce chunky but you can go further and make them smoother.

Perfect applesauce

At this point, it’s ready to eat.  I love it chilled.  Our host was planning on using it warmed on pork chops and putting it into recipes.  Because of the latter possibility, we measured it into bags two cups at a time.  Then we labelled and froze them.  I’ve tasted some of the thawed sauce and it’s fabulous.  The taste and texture don’t suffer a bit for being frozen.

Applesauce ready for the freezer

We made two recipes:

Unsweetened Applesauce
Apples
Lemon juice
Salt

Apple Butter
Apples
Lemon juice
Salt
Ginger
Cloves
Cinnamon
Nutmeg

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Prepare a 30 second promo for what could be their new show. Unlike in previous versions of this, each promo was carefully scripted (including wardrobe) by the Food Network and the contestant had a fair amount of time to do it, with multiple takes, a director, and rehearsals. Each promo was broken up into 2 or more mini-scenes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done completely fairly. Aaron just had to walk down a hallway then he had to say something before throwing dice down a craps table. Adam had to stroll along a stage with a showgirl on each arm, with some closeups. But Lisa was harnessed to a rig where she went up a couple of stories, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf, and had to say her lines in multiple locations along the way. Needless to say, the quality of the promos was inverse to the difficulty.

Challenge #2: Prepare a buffet for 50 guests (the selection committee, hotel chefs, and Vegas performers). They had a reasonable 6 hours to cook and a $1000 budget. The buffet was supposed to be “over the top, Vegas style” and they had to do an “entertaining” intro before the service. Although they didn’t state any rules for the foods, each contestant appeared to have 3 main courses, one vegetable side dish, and a dessert.

How did things go? My favorite, Aaron, did the best with his promo but totally bombed at the buffet. His intro was embarrassingly bad and all three of his main courses were pasta (the reviews of the food were that it was okay but not great). Lisa did so-so with the promo (hard to do when dangling 15 feet in the air), fabulous with the buffet intro, and well with the food. Adam did decently with the promo, well with the buffet intro, and was the runaway favorite with the food.

It’s been obvious that the selection committee loves Aaron, likes Lisa but has reservations, and isn’t too fond of Adam. But because they traditionally gave immunity to the person who won a particular challenge, they couldn’t get rid of Adam. And they didn’t want to dump Aaron for having one bad week. So they wimped out and are bringing all 3 contestants to the final episode this Sunday. At least it’s in New York.

So, enough of that, what the heck would I make if I were feeding 50 people? The budget isn’t an issue, even with expensive items, because everyone ate all 3 buffets, so portions were small. $1000 is $20/person and you can do a lot with that (catering budgets include labor, not just ingredients, and they weren’t serving alcohol). I’d want to be true to my personal food restrictions, at least the basic ones.

Main Courses:

Sweet peppers stuffed with shrimp paste with a hoisin sauce (hot)
Grape leaves stuffed with fish (cold)
Vegan soup, maybe chickpea with Georgian Walnut paste (hot)

Vegetable/Side:

A beautiful raw salad (cold)

Dessert:

Mango sorbet topped with pine nut cream and toasted almonds (cold, but with hot almonds if possible)

The shrimp I envision is the kind you get in dim sum restaurants stuffed into tofu. You take raw shrimp and process it with some other ingredients. I’ve made it before but it was years ago. I’d add spice and something to bind it, egg or flax goo. Maybe peas or something like that for texture and a fresh flavor. Stuff into those gorgeous colored sweet peppers that are 1-2 bites each. Roast. Serve with a salty intense dipping sauce based on hoisin.

The grape leaves came to me as a great choice but, if I were really in a competition, I might swap them out since I don’t have much experience with grape leaves. I’d cook a mild white fish like halibut and mince (not process) it well with a lot of fresh flavors like parsley then either add chutney or use similar flavors.

I’ve made the soup before from one of my favorite cookbooks, Olive Trees & Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, and it’s simple but really good. The walnut paste has a unique flavor and is used regularly within the country of Georgia.

The raw salad would have no lettuce but lots of carefully cut items to make it special. Lots of long thin strips like noodles. Avocado, some more of the sweet peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts, specialty mushrooms. I’d have to see what looked good in the store and went together. A variety of colors. Served either with a chimichurri sauce (lime juice, parsley, mint, cilantro, very good olive oil, and garlic) or something else with an intense flavor that would pull all the other ingredients together.

Mango sorbet is very simple, which is the best way to do it. Take very ripe mangoes, remove the skin and pits, and puree them. A touch of salt, a squeeze of lime, some vanilla is all you need. It’s plenty sweet enough. Most people would add simple syrup but mango doesn’t need more sugar and all that water will just dilute the flavor.

I’d serve it with some vanilla bean pine nut cream (because you don’t have to soak pine nuts) and some toasted almond slices on top. If the kitchen didn’t have an ice cream maker, I could freeze half the puree in ice cube trays and then blend it up and then freeze again (watching it carefully so it doesn’t get too hard).

My meal could be done by 2 people (each contestant got a former contestant as a sous chef) in 6 hours with no problems. Granted, it did take me a few days to come up with the dishes, instead of near instanteneously like the contestants are forced to do. And I might not be able to get every ingredient I needed (in January, in the middle of the desert…oh, they’d all be in the store, just not at their peak). But hey, I’m a blogger in front of a computer, not a trained cook trying to smile for the camera. I get to imagine success.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

As you can imagine, a few of these beauties made it to the compost pile.  Not because they were bad when I bought them but because there is only so much you can do with that many peaches.  I already have several jars of peach chutney and several bags of frozen peach ice cream mix from previous summers.

I made quite a few dried peaches, ate a mountain of them fresh, and discovered a new treat: peach cobbler.

I didn’t follow a recipe, which is probably just as well since I’ve never made it the “regular” way before.  I just put together things that seemed right.  I’ve made it twice now.

Start by washing and slicing the fresh peaches.  I never peel them.  The ones below were on their last legs and had been in the fridge for a while, but they were still amazing.  You can not make this recipe with supermarket peaches grown for size and shipping stamina and picked too soon.

Toss the slices into a lightly greased baking pan.  Aim for one layer thick with some overlap.

Next, make the topping.

I don’t have an exact recipe.  I used nut meal, palm shortening, a little salt, and a touch of honey.  My first batch was with ground walnuts and it was great.  For the second batch I used ground almonds.  It was good but not as tasty.  I wanted to use some oats but didn’t have any.  It’s best with meal that is closer to flour (or actual nut flour with some meal mixed in).

Because I am trying to keep the carbs low, I used nut meal/flour instead of grain flour.  In my second batch I added a bit of stevia to boost the sweetening without adding more honey.  This worked out well.

Mix the nuts and shortening first until you have something that can stick together.  Then add sweetener and seasoning as desired.

Now, put the topping over the fruit and very lightly tap it down.

Bake at 400*F for about half an hour, or until done.  The first time I made a small batch and just put it all into the convection toaster oven.  It came out amazing.  The peaches tasted fresh and juicy but there wasn’t excess liquid.  The second time the pan wouldn’t fit in the toaster oven so I used the regular oven.  I had to overcook it to get the water to evaporate (I cooked the peaches some without topping at first).  It was still delicious but the peaches had almost a canned flavor to them.

So if you have a convection oven, use it.  If not, maybe baking the peaches at very low heat at first will work, then add the topping.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

The basic recipe is:

Pureed fruit
Liquid to make them pourable

For this batch, I used frozen strawberries (because that’s what we had) and a banana.  I thinned it with water.  That’s it.  For a lowcarb treat, use lowcarb fruits like berries and melon (not watermelon) and stone fruit (peaches, plums).

My stepmother tells me she made popsicles for me and my brother as kids with orange juice and yoghurt.  Instead of the water I used, you could use cow’s milk, yoghurt, cream, soy milk, rice milk, nut milk, or juice.  Nearly any fruit would work well.  You can also make an ice cream base and freeze that.

Just mix it up and pour it into your molds, setting it up as appropriate.

I have some all metal molds but they’re harder to use and the sticks are not standard and are something you can’t substitute for or replace.  I’m not crazy about using plastic but it’s the easiest to find.

1.5 cups of puree filled 6 of my 8 molds.  Next time I’ll make 2 cups.  If you write down the total amount needed for your molds, it will make it very simple to whip up a new batch.

Let them freeze for several hours.  The stick should be firmly in place.  Dip the mold in very hot water (I used tap) for a few seconds then slide the popsicle out.  This may take a couple dips.

Eat on a blistering hot day for best effects.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Fortunately for our taste buds, variety is allowed. This may be the most popular recipe in the US, but it’s far from the only possibility. Charoset is a ritual food used during the Passover seder so there are some qualities it needs to have. It is the reminder for mortar, which Jews in ancient Eqypt used to make bricks, one of the main tasks set upon them during centuries of slavery, according to the Torah.

I’ve had some wonderful non-apple-based charosets over the years, and I thought about making one of them for Passover this year (2008) but we were making several new dishes and that was too much. I love the traditional kind though.

No exact measures here. So much is personal preference. This recipe makes enough for 20 people, often with some leftovers. It depends how much your family and guests like to eat. And if you want enough to last you all week (makes a nice dessert, or works as a side dish with dinner, especially with leftover horseradish).

Recipe:

6 large apples (I’ve found Braeburn to be the best)
A bit of fresh lemon juice (optional, if you’re working with a lot of apples)
2 cups walnuts
Honey to taste
Splash of red wine (or grape juice; we’d use more wine if there weren’t children)
1 TB or so cinnamon

The rest is pretty simple. Chop the apples. Michael generally does half to a semi-paste in the food processor and half chopped by hand. You can add some nuts too to make a paste or grind them coarsely.

Then mix in the other ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Because of nut-allergic guests, we always make a nut-free version. Sometimes we make a grape juice one too.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

The original recipe was:

“For dessert, I’m going to make a fruit tart. The shell will be ground nuts (I’ll use almond meal, but any will do), coconut oil and honey pressed into a tart shell with removable bottom. I’ll bake the shell a bit and when cooled I’ll fill it with lemon flavored macadamia nut cream (soak nuts in water for half a day, drain and blend with enough water to make a ‘cream’ and add flavorings if you desire). Then I’ll top it with fresh berries and fruit.”

We’re not sure what a tart shell with a removable bottom is, so we decided to just make it in a springform pan. We’ve done nut crusts and nut creams before, so putting them together shouldn’t be too hard.

The day before the seder, I soaked the macadamia nuts in water.

After about 18 hours, they come out pretty scuzzy looking. But, don’t worry, they clean up good.

The day of the seder, we made the crust. First we ground the almonds into meal.

Next, Michael measured the meal in the springform pans (we used two) to gauge the correct amount.

Crust Recipe:

6 cups almond meal
9 TB solid oil (we used a combo of coconut and palm shortening)
1 1/2 TB honey (I’d use 3 TB next time)

Makes enough to fill two 10.5″ diameter springform pans

Press finished crust into springform pans, making a lip of about 3/4″ up the sides.

We baked the crusts at 350*F for about 10 minutes. If you want a totally raw dish, leave the crusts out for a few hours or pop into a dehydrator, just to help them stick together (and slightly tweak a couple ingredients).

Macadamia Cream Filling Recipe:

18 oz raw macadamia nuts (soaked overnight then rinsed)
Zest from 2 lemons (about 1 TB)
Juice from 1 lemon
3 TB honey
Several dashes stevia powder (to boost sweetening)
1 TB vanilla (we accidentally left this out)
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups water (use more or less, as needed)

Makes 7 1/2 cups.

Soak and rinse nuts. Grate the lemon peel to make zest.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except all of the water, which should be added as needed) to the blender and blend until very smooth. It helps to do it in small batches, starting with very little liquid at low speeds. Add enough liquid to get it moving, increase the speed, and add more nuts. It’s hard to get this fully creamy–it had more of a ricotta texture than a cream cheese one–and I suspect we might need a better blender. But do make sure there is no grit, which takes several minutes. Put cream in fridge to solidify.

Put the cream into the crusts and pop everything back into the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Remove the springform ring and you’re ready to cut and serve. Best with some berries or other fruit on top. We used blueberries.

Some notes: the crust could have been sweeter. Some extra honey would have done that and helped it stay together more. Or you can put dates into the food processor with the nuts. The nut crust was good but a bit chewy. Next time, I’ll leave some nuts as they are in the pictures but process others more finely. We also should have had more fruit, though it was great without any too.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Their slushie recipe:

Ice cubes (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the blender)
Fresh watermelon (a cup or so)
Fresh strawberries (a cup of so)
Lime juice (freshly squeezed, maybe 1 lime’s worth)

I’ve made a lot of smoothies, usually with soy milk, but only rarely have made slushies. The difference is the ice. Slushies are very cold and have that wonderful bumpy texture.

My recipe is more intense because 1) I like it that way and 2) I can’t find my ice cube trays. But the diluted (with ice) kind would be better on a very hot day so you could drink more of it.

Soon after the fair, a vendor at the Farmer’s Market had a ton of organic strawberries they were practically giving away. They said they had been rejected from Whole Foods because they were too ripe. Indeed, they were at their peak and wouldn’t have lasted overnight without refrigeration. So we got a whole flat (12 overflowing baskets) for a mere $9. I gave away 2 baskets, put 3 in the fridge, and froze the remaining 7.

I poured the strawberries into a bowl of cold tap water (no chlorine in ours). Then I pulled off the caps by hand and put them on a clean dish towel on a cookie sheet. When they were done (I did this in two batches), I put them back into a fresh bowl of water, swished, and scooped them back on to the towel. Then I poured them off the towel on to the cookie sheet. It’s best if you don’t wash them, but these were a bit older and I felt it was necessary.

I used 2 big cookie sheets. Ideally, you don’t want the strawberries to touch each other, but at least keep them in a single layer. The drier they are, the better. Freeze overnight, then transfer to zipper bags (they will take some prying) or your container of choice and store in the freezer. My 7 baskets made 2 stuffed gallon bags worth.

My slushie recipe:

Fresh melon (leftover from a holiday fruit salad: cantaloupe, honeydew, chopped mint, a touch of salt, and some liquid in the bottom of the bowl, about 1/3 blender full)
Frozen strawberries (about the same quantity as the melon)

It came out really well. We do have watermelon in the fridge, and I liked the watermelon/strawberry blend a lot, but I wanted to use up the melon salad first. I also want to do some with peaches (we have some older ones in the fridge). Lime or lemon juice would be good too.

I love that it is pure fruit. Juice is promoted as a healthy food but it’s just not. It’s stripped of fiber and a lot of the best nutrients. Commercial brands are extremely sweet (even if they don’t add sugar; they either use sweet fruits or add white grape or apple juice), use peeled fruits, are filtered, and are pasteurized. Ick . If you make your own juice, that’s different. though I recommend eating the pulp too (can be in a different recipe) so you get the whole fruit).

For a lower carb slushie, choose berries, melon (not watermelon), or stone fruit, and use ice cubes or water to dilute it some.

These blends would make great popsicles, by the way. Our usual source of strawberries says she puts her unwashed strawberries in the blender (she only removes the caps) and then puts the unadulterated puree into popsicle molds.

Now I have frozen strawberries to use in drinks or slushies all summer long. Slicing them would be easier on my blender (a couple got left whole) but it’s more work and takes more trays for freezing.

Since then, I’ve made slushies every which way. You need something frozen (ice cubes or fruit) mixed with very liquid fruit or firmer fruit with liquid added.

One recent recipe:

Frozen raspberries (a couple cups)
A couple squeeze of lemon
Various leftover fruit (a few slices of mango, half an overripe banana)
Water to make it blend and thin it out

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

When you’re dealing with food allergies, it can be hard to come up with traditional foods without making them seem like substitutes. Miriam’s allergic to gluten (wheat), eggs, oranges, and chocolate. And we eat very little dairy and little to no artificial stuff. Oh and low sugar, but that one goes out the window with a birthday.

But this cake is amazing. It has soy and nuts, so doesn’t work for all food allergic people, but it does avoid what we can’t have. It’s so good that people with no dietary restrictions love it. A week before the party, a friend told me her husband asked if we were going to have “that yummy cake” we had last year.

Cake:

Many thanks to Danielle Nelson of Foodlab for turning us on to the recipe (which she doesn’t remember the author of). Below is the version we actually used, which is slightly adapted from the original.

Recipe:

1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup SWEET rice flour (white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sunflower (or other bland) oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
4 oz silken tofu
1.5 cups grated carrots
2/3 cup chopped, lightly toasted walnuts

Substitution notes: regular raisins can be used instead of golden; the recipe calls for orange juice to soak the raisins in, instead of water, guar gum can be used instead of xanthan gum (which has traces of corn); the recipe calls for canola oil, which we don’t use.

We double the recipe and use two pans.

Preheat the oven to 325*F. Lightly grease an 8″ round cake pan or equivalent.

Soak raisins in water for 10 min. Drain. Mix together flours, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, gum and salt.

Whisk oil, maple syrup and tofu until smooth. Stir into dry ingredients. Fold in the grated carrots, nuts and raisins.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hr or until done.

Frosting:

Now for the frosting. It’s not strictly necessary but it does make it look more like a birthday cake. I am not happy with either of the frostings we made. Last year we used a standard cream cheese frosting from Joy of Cooking. The cake is already very sweet though and this just compounded it.

This year I wanted a vegan frosting so I used the recipe for Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening (palm oil)
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine (Earth Balance)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

INSTRUCTIONS
Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

It was decent when first made, though not fluffy. But Michael had to make it the night before and put it in the fridge and it came out flat, even after warming to room temperature. It didn’t spread evenly and basically tasted like sweet grease (which I enjoy but Michael was not so thrilled with). Next time we’re either going to forgo the frosting or work on a different version, something vegan and not so sweet.

Here’s a shot of the same cake (in the same pans, though the top cake is trimmed), with cream cheese frosting and decorated with golden raisins and dried cranberries, from Miriam’s 2nd birthday party, Feb 2007.

If you’re wondering why one cake is square and the other round…there is no reason, just a lack of cake pans.

Our birthday girl needed some help with the candles. Below, Michael cuts the cake, as the children wait.

(many thanks to Yorick Phoenix for several of the photos)

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve tried my hand at making them before with varying degrees of success. The secret to the Lara texture is to food process the heck out of them (or to use a blender with some extra water)…save the nuts to add in after. I like them with a bit more texture though, and adding water just means you have to cook/uncook them longer which also changes the texture.

Tip: rough chop the dates with a big knife on the cutting board. The whole (or even half) ones will stick to the food processor blades and make it impossible to do anything.

This time I tried Miriam’s current favorite flavor, banana. The dates weren’t organic, because I found a big thing of them cheap at Costco, but I usually use organic and, now that I’ve got the recipe down, will find the good ones to mail order.

No measurements. I processed the dates in two batches. Here is batch one:

Note the chunky texture. That really made the difference in the bars. I had to add a touch of water to get them going (the amount will vary with the dates). Do be sure to go through every date with your hands before putting in the processor. I found one pit and several little end caps in the dates I used.

In batch number two, I added the banana (2 of them) and cinnamon powder. So I didn’t need to add water. This I processed smooth.

After removing them, I put in the nuts. I was going to use pecans but they weren’t good so I used the only nuts I had, which were walnuts. Process into small chunks. Then mix everything together.

Put into a pan. This batch is thick enough that even choosing a pan that was too big didn’t hurt anything. Aim for 1/2 to 2/3″ thick. No need to grease the pan.

Technically, these aren’t raw, despite the tag, but they can be made raw. If I had a dehydrator, I would use it. But I don’t, so I just set the oven to the lowest setting, 150*F. They only took a couple of hours for the main drying. When you can do so easily, cut into large pieces and flip them over. After another hour or so, cut into smaller bars and prop up.

The total amount of time will depend on how much water was in your ingredients and added, the temperature of your oven or dehydrator, air flow, your pan, and various other factors. I was cooking other things so just left the oven on for a while through-out the day, and finished them off the next day.

What you want is something soft enough to cut and bite into easily but dry enough that it’s no longer sticky. In theory these should be safe to leave out covered at room temperature but I store them in the fridge. They are best when back at room temperature or warm from the oven.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.