Book of Yum

Our in-laws are visiting, and Kid Yum had the day off from preschool so I had an unusually leisurely morning that inspired me to bake up some treats for our visitors. I asked Kid Yum what sounded good to her— suggesting carrot muffins or banana muffins. She thought for a minute and declared, “Apple Muffins!” She does love apples, and since we had a big package of organic Fuji apples I thought that sounded like an excellent idea. It made me remember a sweet apple muffin streudel recipe I made some time ago, using dairy, but I wanted to make it dairy-free for my lactose-sensitive father-in-law. I also wanted to cut down on the sweetener considerably to make it a more sensible as a breakfast choice. I made two batches- one egg-free for a friend who recently got out of surgery, and one batch using eggs. The recipes turned out well, and I could tell they were a success when the DH gobbled not one but two in rapid succession. We’ll be making these again! One note: they are very delicate (a touch crumbly) when hot out of the oven but they firm up as they cool.

Another thing… You may have noticed how infrequent my posts have become. I’ve wanted to post, honestly, and I feel terrible for letting last month’s adopt-a-gluten-free-blogger event slide (post coming soon), but there have been a few things keeping me busy.

For one thing…

I’m pregnant! We’re expecting our second Baby Yum in August. The first trimester hit me hard, leaving me tired, nauseous, and uninspired by food. Thankfully once I got into the second trimester I’ve felt much more like myself, but I also feel the tick-tock of the clock and the necessity of finishing my dissertation. Basically while Kid Yum is at preschool I work on my dissertation work like crazy, and then when she gets home, I make dinner and we try to spend some quality family time together. We go to bed early, though, and household chores like laundry end up getting done at the end of the day, just when I used to habitually blog.

Actually… laundry is piled on the edge of the bed as I type this.. and I’ll have to fold it before we go to sleep. Ah life is so glamorous here at the House of Yum…

But, I do think of you guys and this blog, and I frequently type in new recipes that I intend to post, and write up recipe notes and take photos, especially of Kid Yum’s bentos. I just need to figure out how to work in blogging, being a mommy, writing a dissertation, and living life all at the same time.

And by the way… we found out late last month…. the new Baby Yum is a boy! We can’t wait to welcome him to our family. Don’t worry, we’ll introduce you guys too. You’ll just have to wait until August, along with us.

I shared this with the fabulous Simply Sugar and Gluten-free Slightly Indulgent Tuesday and Wellness Weekend.

Dairy-free Chunky Apple Muffins with walnut topping Bread  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients Apple Pie Base: 1 tbsp. grapeseed oil 3 or small apples, peeled and sliced 2 tbsp raisins 1/4 tsp dried lemon peel (optional) 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 tsp. vanilla heaped 1/2 tsp or more cinnamon Muffin batter: 3/4 cup sorghum or brown rice flour 1/4 cup almond flour 1 cup tapioca starch 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 large egg or Ener-g foods egg replacer egg 1/2 cup applesauce 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey, maple syrup or agave nectar 1/3 cup coconut cream from canned full fat coconut milk 1/3 cup coconut milk from above canned coconut milk 1/4 cup grapeseed oil Topping: 1/4 cup walnuts light sprinkle of brown sugar, date sugar or coconut sugar Directions Preheat oven to 375f. Place muffin tin liners in a muffin pan. Heat a nonstick pan on medium and add your grapeseed oil. Just as it starts to brown, throw in your apples and raisins and sprinkle them with optional lemon peel. Let them begin to brown, and then turn and add lemon juice and vanilla. As the second side browns, add your cinnamon and turn one more time. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for your muffin from sorghum flour to the nutmeg. Whisk together to combine. Put your egg or ener-g egg in a small to medium bowl and whisk together. Add applesauce, honey or other liquid sweetener, coconut cream and coconut milk and oil together and whisk until combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour your combined liquid ingredients into the well. Fold in your liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Assemble your muffins by putting a small layer of batter in the muffin tin. Then put a layer of the apple pie filling over the batter. Cover it with a layer of batter. Place a few chopped walnuts on top of the muffins and sprinkle very lightly with brown sugar or other powdered natural sweetener. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until muffins are a nice golden brown and separate easily from the muffin tin. Leave them in the muffin tin for a few minutes or separate muffins from the pan gently with a butter knife. Put on a wire rack to cool. Notes Very delicate muffin until it cools, at which point it becomes less prone to crumbling. Three glutenoids (two not accustomed to gluten-free eating) gobbled them up and pronounced them yummy.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Contents of my brain. Please do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1607 Added:  April 2, 2013 Last Modified:  April 2, 2013

Here in Japan, it is the season of festivals, fireworks, and finally, the summer harvest. In the Northernmost part of Japan that we are living in, summer comes later than other parts of Japan, and goes by quicker. However, at long last, local gardens are giving up bounty of green peas, bok choy type greens, tomatoes, and edamame soybeans. I have never lived in rural Japan before- which is called “Inaka”, or Ee-nah-kah, by residents and visitors. Honestly, I don’t find Mutsu City (where we are currently living) all that “Inaka” or rural. There are a handful of different grocery stores, tons of clothing stores, lots of restaurants (although we just end up going to the kaiten zushi, revolving sushi restaurant called Kappa Zushi), and a terrific city workout center and city library.

But one thing that does make me think that I’m living somewhere rural is how warm and generous the local people have been to us. I’ve never gotten so many (food) gifts in my life, whether it is the local specialty Beko Mochi for Kid Yum, or random snacks received and redistributed, or, these days, bounty from people’s garden. Just today we were given fresh, beautiful tomatoes from two different friends’ gardens. One woman befriended my Mom at the city workout center (wellness center), and today had her over for lunch and gave her tomatoes to bring home from her garden. Kid Yum’s Preschool friends’ mother came all the way to my research site today and brought me still more tomatoes from her own mother’s garden. We were suddenly swimming in tomatoes! The latter friend also gave me some beautiful garden eggplant. I looked at those two ingredients, and somehow thought that risotto would be the perfect way to marry the two together. I found an interesting recipe online which roasted and pureed eggplant and mixed it into the rice. Since Kid Yum won’t touch any eggplant she can see, I thought it would be a good way to sneak a little variety into her diet, so taking that as my jumping point, I created a new recipe topped with vibrant roasted baby tomatoes.

We’ve been having a wonderful time here in Japan enjoying the festivals. Kid Yum got to participate in our neighborhood Kid Nebuta float and play at pulling the float along with her neighborhood pals. And a week or so later, I got to help carry the City Hall Mikoshi (portable shrine). There’s no place like Inaka, at least, the inaka of the biggest city in Tohoku’s Shimokita Peninsula.

Here are a few pictures and a video to give you a taste of our life here, before you enjoy my latest recipe.

A terrible picture of me, but it was dreadfully hot. Unfortunately the only picture of me in the happi traditional jacket for festivals.

Alta from Tasty Eats at Home is hosting THIS MONTH’S Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger. You can still sign up! Please give her your support in comments and love. Since I’ll be staying in Japan through October, I would love any offers to host for September or October. Please let me know if you are interested in Hosting Adopt a gluten-free Blogger! *hugs*

Finally, a Video from the Tanabu Festival, with traditional dancing and Shimokita’s theme song

Grilled Eggplant and Roasted Tomato Risotto Recipe Main Course  Rice  Italian

Ingredients 2 small eggplant, cut in half horizontally, pierce skin in several places and rubbed with olive oil 2 cups small tomatoes, halved 2 tbsp olive oil 1 small onion, diced 1 1/2 cup arborio rice 1/2 cup white wine or mirin (sweet rice wine) 3 cups vegetable broth 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (unsweetened, plain- I used soy) salt or herbamare to taste smoked paprika fresh basil, julienned to garnish Directions Grill eggplant on a bbq, broil in an oven, or grill in a Japanese fish grill (under the rangetop in a japanese house) until soft. Then scoop out the flesh, dispose of the skin, and food process the soft eggplant flesh until smooth and creamy. Prepare tomatoes by placing on cookie sheet lined with wax paper, drizzling with olive oil and a little salt. If you have a toaster oven, you can roast them in the toaster oven for about 20 minutes. Otherwise, you can use a regular oven or broiler… remove when the bottom starts to brown slightly and they have shrunk in size. Heat the olive oil to medium in a large stock pan (a dutch oven is great) and add your diced onion. Saute until onion starts to turn translucent, and then add your risotto rice. Stir rice into the onion and let the rice start to turn translucent around the edges. Add your white wine or mirin (I didn’t have wine so used mirin) and stir. Prepare some warm vegetable broth either in a pot or microwave. I used a gluten-free vegetable bullion cube with hot water from a tea dispenser. Add 1/2 cup of broth to your rice, stirring until it is evenly distributing and then leaving the rice until it has absorbed more liquid. Add more broth 1/2 cup at a time, until you have used it all and the rice has become soft, about 20 minutes. If you need more liquid, add water 1/4 cup at a time until the rice is soft. Don’t add too much because the water will dilute the flavor! When rice is tender stir in the grilled eggplant puree and non-dairy milk. Season with salt or herbamare and smoked paprika. Serve topped with roasted baby tomatoes and fresh julienned basil.

Rating:  7 Original Source:  The contents of my brain. Please do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1599 Added:  August 25, 2012 Last Modified:  August 25, 2012

Chickpea Hummus Un-Burgers Main Course  American

Ingredients 1 can garbanzo beans, drained 1 tbsp tahini (if thick, add a little hot water to make liquid) 1 tsp. lime or lemon zest (grated skin) 1 tbsp. potato starch herbamare or your favorite seasoned salt dried dill herb to taste 1 tbsp. julinned basil 1-2 tbsp. olive oil Lime slice (For serving) Directions Place your drained beans in a medium bowl and use either a potato masher or your fingers to partially mash them. Drizzle your tahini on the beans, add zest, and sprinkle potato starch, dried dill and salt, mixing together to form a ball, adding fresh julienned basil at the very end. Form into small, firm patties. Heat olive oil on medium and put in your patties, turning when side is golden brown. Serve each patty topped with a squirt of lime juice from the lime slice.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  The contents of my brain. Please do not replicate without permission. Recipe ID:  1600 Added:  August 25, 2012 Last Modified:  August 25, 2012