Spring is here!

Robins are back, and the ice on the lake is out. The rhubarb is up, strawberries, chives, and some herbs are leafing out.  Finally!  Can't wait to start on the garden again and hang laundry out on the line . . . If the weather cooperates, it's only a few more weeks to morel season.  I have a spot that has been a good producer - it's just getting there at the right time. 

This winter has been a busy one - between the holidays, birthdays, and now really ramping up therapy for the little guy is taking over!  I haven't been working on too many new recipes, but my latest ones include dumplings, soft shell tortillas, and nightshade (and carrot!) -free tacos!  I'm really ridiculously excited about the tacos, since having to be nightshade free means no tomatoes.  The only other recipes out there I could find involved carrots, which my little guy can't have either. I suspect it's because of the falcarinol in them (aka carrotatoxin).

One of my favorite things to do is scour the grocery store for new and unusual items - or at least items I haven't seen or used before.  I recently tried some red palm oil.  By itself, I can say I'm not a fan . . . but I like to mix a wee bit of it into unrefined coconut oil with a little bit of salt to make what I like to call "paleo butter".  It's not exactly like butter, but does make a delicious substitute when using it as a spread.  Back onto the subject of carrots - red palm oil does have a carrot-y flavor, so I tried adding it to mashed parsnips - and that tasted just like cooked carrots!  Which led me to creating my own version of the no-mato taco recipes to get the flavor I wanted (no-mato uses carrots & beets as a base).  I always liked the Ortega brand mild taco sauce, and it came pretty close!  Using my heritage beets, I didn't get any color since they are white inside, and the beets at the grocery stores in winter are the red ones.  I'm looking forward to making the recipe with golden beets (and a wee bit of the red beets) to get the color *just right* for photos.

That's all for now - keep your food whole and keep it fresh! :)

 

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