DIY Chocolate Eggs

If you've been following along for a while, you probably know that my son is allergic to dairy. This makes it pretty difficult to find Easter candy in the UK that he can enjoy. I have not been able to find any eggs, bunnies, chicks or any other Easter-themed candy that is anything other than milk chocolate. Oh, wait. I did see some white chocolate eggs, but those are also full of dairy. 

So, I have solved the problem by making my own dairy free chocolate candies for us to enjoy this Easter. They are made from dark chocolate, which is totally dairy free...and delicious!

Materials:

Green & Blacks Organic Dark Chocolate Bars 70% (or equivalent)

Silicon Molds

Microwave Safe Dish for melting chocolate

Chocolate Bar Foil Wrapper (or foil)

Method:

1. Very carefully open the foil wrapper so that you can reuse it to wrap the chocolate candies.

2. Break chocolate bar into pieces and place in your microwave safe dish.

3. Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring at 20-second intervals to prevent burning.

4. Carefully spoon melted chocolate into silicone mold.

5. Place in freezer for 15 to 20 minutes.

6. Turn silicone mold upside-down and pop out chocolate candies. If the candies don't pop out easily, return to freezer for a few more minutes.

While your chocolates are freezing, cut foil wrapper into pieces that are large enough to completely cover all sides of the chocolate candies. If the wrapper isn't large enough to make pieces for all the chocolates, you can use kitchen foil. We always wash and save our foil because it is such an easy thing to reuse. So, I took some smaller pieces our and flattened them when I realized I didn't have enough G&B foil. 

After the chocolate has hardened and you've popped it out, place it upside-down on a small piece of foil. Then bring all the corners and sides up and over and press them down.

If you press gently on the top of your chocolate egg, the design will show through the foil. You've now got a foil-wrapped chocolate candy!

We're stuffing ours into plastic eggs for an egg hunt we'll host on Friday.

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Pita Chips

I just pulled out one of my favorite snack recipes to use up some pita bread that was about to take a turn for the worst: pita chips. My brother told me how to make these years ago and everyone in my family enjoys them. Here's the pita chip recipe for you to enjoy...

Ingredients:

Pita Bread

Olive Oil

Salt

Black Pepper (optional)

*Preheat oven to 165ºC (325ºF)

Step 1: Cut the pita bread and spread it on a baking sheet.

Step 2: Drizzle the pieces with olive oil.

Step 3: Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Step 4: Eat and enjoy!

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Nanny's Fudge

A few days after I made some delicious-dairy-free-chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge (phew...that's a mouthful), I made some chocolate fudge. My mom sent me a fudge recipe that my Nanny made when my mom was a child, the same fudge recipe my mom made for us when we were children. Of course, being my disorganised and scattered self, I started to make it and then realized that I didn't have any evaporated milk. I had used it in an extra pumpkin pie. But I did have almond milk in the fridge, so I gave it a try and it worked...deeeelicious. Another delicious dairy free fudge! Mmm...mmm.

Four Way Christmas Fudge Recipe

Ingredients:

1 jar marshmallow cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup (158 ml) evaporated milk (or almond milk)

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate pieces (Green & Blacks Organic - Yum!)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c (57 grams) butter or margarine

How to make the fudge:

Combine marshmallow cream, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in a large saucepan.

Bring to a full all over boil, stirring constantly.

Continue to boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; Stir in semi-sweet chocolate pieces and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Turn into greased 8-inch square pan.

Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Cut into squares.

 

Makes approximately 2 1/8 lb.

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Dairy Free Fudge

So, we recently figured out (in June) that my little boy has a dairy allergy. It hasn't been too difficult to adjust our diet or how I cook...until Thanksgiving when I realised he couldn't eat Libby's Pumpkin Pie! Fortunately, I found a decent dairy free pumpkin pie recipe. Phew!

Now, it's Christmas. We like fudge. All four of us. A lot. 

I got my mom's recipe that was originally my Nanny's so that I could make some fudge with the kids. Of course, it has dairy. So then I did a quick hunt for a dairy free fudge recipe and found this: Really Nice Dairy Free Fudge from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. I am still going to make my Nanny's fudge, but I wanted to make the dairy free fudge first so that my little guy wouldn't miss out. 

It took a little longer to firm up than stated in the recipe, but that is not a big deal at all. It is pure chocolatey, peanut-buttery deliciousness...at least I and my two kids think so. King Damascus can't stand it. He can't stand the taste of coconuts (unless he's just cracked open their shell) or even a hint of the flavor (like me with bananas). But he'll enjoy the next batch when I use my Nanny's recipe. For now, I'll enjoy this dairy free fudge with my two little ones. 

More for me...and my hips.

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Pumpkin & Ginger Soup

King Damascus (otherwise known as Chong, my husband) helps out in our school & community garden which is where we got our jack-o-lantern pumpkins. We had one little one left and I've been saving it to make some pumpkin soup. Since our lives have been busy most evenings with work and other obligations, we rarely have a home cooked dinner together. However, things have changed this week and this pumpkin soup was dinner number 2 of 3 that we've had cooked in our kitchen, at home, together. That was the first leaf I put on our thankful tree.

I used a wonderful recipe from Riverford Organic Farms which is where we get our fruit and vegetable deliveries every week. I followed the recipe with just a few changes to meet our needs. First, I left out the milk. Second, I added a lot more honey than the recipe called for because we all have a sweet tooth. I also thought that might help my little girl eat it. She currently doesn't like soup.

Here's the recipe which you can also find here with the original honey amount.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 kg (2.2 lb) pumpkin, peeled, deseeded & diced

5 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled & finely chopped

2 tbsp (10ml or 2 tsp) honey

1 ltr (34 fl oz) vegetable or chicken stock

sea salt & ground black pepper

sprinkling of nutmeg

Directions:

Heat oil and butter in a large pan. Add the onions and cook on medium heat for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not let the onions brown. Add pumpkin, ginger, honey and stir. Add stock, bring to a boil, and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Puree in a blender. Reheat, season, and serve with a sprinkling of nutmeg.

King Damascus loved it. Little guy liked it until he realized his sister didn't. Little girl hated it.

I also loved it and will be making it again with the other two pumpkins that are waiting in our kitchen. Maybe my little girl will like it next time!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Zucchini Bread

One and a half courgettes in the fridge and no plans to use them. Hmmm...they won't last another two days. Let's make zucchini bread...or should I say pain de courgettes? Either way, it's delicious. 

I used my favorite zucchini bread recipe called Mom's Zucchini Bread found on allrecipes.com one or two years ago. It's got 5 stars out of 5 from over four thousand reviewers. Not bad.

The only change I made was to leave out walnuts because my little girl won't eat them and I wanted her to enjoy the zucchini bread...especially because she helped make it (along with my little guy).

And everyone helped eat it!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

How to make salsa verde...

You may have read about our weekly veg box delivery here or here. We get a box of vegetables every week from Riverford Organic Farms. It's full of delicious freshness - so fresh that there's even an occasional slug on the lettuce. Recently, they have had a special kit for salsa verde. I was hesitant to order it at first because I love good Mexican food and good salsa, which are both hard to find in England. Their availability has improved over the last 7 years that I've lived here, but I have to travel to London and pay too much money for one good taco. I'd rather make it at home. I had great doubts that a tomatillo salsa kit in England would give me tasty salsa verde. THEN...I got to taste it in Riverford's stall at the Egham Royal Show. How pleased I was to taste it and love it. I ordered the kit as soon as I could, made it as soon as I could, and ate half of it in one sitting!

The sad part is that I won't be able to order it for much longer, so I made sure to get three kits in this week's box. I made two of them today which resulted in a large batch of homemade salsa verde. If you can get your hands on some tomatillos, I highly recommend making your own salsa verde by following Riverford's recipe below with (or without) my one modification. The first time I made it, it was super spicy (which I loved) but the one below is less spicy which allows me to eat more of it. I hope you enjoy my way of savoring the salsa with the steps recorded here.

Ingredients for Salsa Verde

400g tomatillos, husks removed & rinsed well

1 small red onion, finely diced

1/2 to 1 chilli

20g fresh coriander

zest and juice of 1 lime

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon brown sugar

sea salt

Step 1: Mix diced onion, lime juice, zest, and brown sugar. Let it sit in a bowl for 30 minutes.

(A shallow bowl is recommended, but mine were dirty and a not-so-shallow bowl worked well, too.)

Step 2: Pulse tomatillos and chillies in a food processor.

(I don't have a food processor but the blender worked fine.)

Step 3: Mince the garlic. Chop the coriander. Add a pinch of salt.

Step 4: When the 30 minutes have ended, stir all the ingredients together.

Step 5: Enjoy your homemade salsa verde with a chip...

Then again, enjoy your homemade salsa verde with another chip...

Yum!

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Update:

I've linked up to these fabulous parties!

Blackberry and Rhubarb Crumble

 Mmmm...crispy, crumbly, sweet, sugary blackberry crumble.

I collected pounds of fresh blackberries on the way to the park with my family...and then I made this crumble. It's not your average blackberry crumble. It's also got a special ingredient from this week's veg box: rhubarb. After making some rhubarb bars a few months ago, I was so excited to see more rhubarb in my Riverford organic veg box. I used my favorite resource for finding new recipes (Google) and found a blackberry and rhubarb crisp recipe at Joy of Baking. I modified it a bit so that my crispy crumble would be sweet enough (the blackberries were pretty tart!) and have plenty of crispy topping (my favorite part!).

After sharing it with friends at a bbq last night, they all gave it a thumbs up, so now I'm sharing it with you. Here's what you need...

Crumbly Topping:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cubed

3/4 cup rolled oats

Blackberry & Rhubarb Filling:

1 pound fresh rhubarb, sliced into small pieces

2 cups fresh blackberries

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup apple juice

1 tablespoon corn flour (cornstarch)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC)

Place flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, oats and butter in a bowl. Smash it together with your fingers until it mixes into coarse clumps. Set it aside.

Gently mix blackberries, rhubarb, and brown sugar in another bowl.

 In a small bowl, whisk together apple juice, corn flour, and vanilla. Add this mixture to the fruit and sugar. Gently toss it all together. Pour it evenly into a 9x9 baking dish. Then spread the crumbly topping mixture evenly on top of the fruit.

Place on centre rack in pre-heated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool on cooling rack and then eat.

I like mine alone, but you can also enjoy it with cream or ice cream. If you make it, I'd love to hear how your turned out!

If you're not going to make it, don't worry, I saved you a bite...

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Rhubarb Bars ❤

I absolutely love my weekly veg box from Riverford Organic Farms. It's exciting to get fresh, organic veg every week. It makes my trips to Sainsbury's a lot shorter. And most of all, it challenges me in my kitchen creativity (which is not my strongest talent).

This past week, I was delivered rhubarb. I'd seen it before, so it wasn't a mystery veg like the celeriac. I'd also eaten it before - only a handful of times but enough to know it was good in desserts.

Perfect. I've been loving desserts lately ...which I'll probably be regretting when I get to California next week and will be amongst all the beautiful people. But for now, I'm bundled up for the cold, rainy, windy weather we've been having in England and am still in winter mode...in other words, eat a lot of food to stay warm.

I found a recipe for rhubarb crumble bars (Yum.) on Sweet Anna's blog and just happened to have all the ingredients in my kitchen, which was a pleasant surprise because I was struggling to find enough to make lunch and dinner. 

Anything with lots of butter and sugar and brown sugar has got to be good.

My kids helped me as usual. We made the sauce in the morning - went to a local pub to have lunch and bounce on a bouncy castle for an hour or so - came home - mixed the crumble bar recipe - baked it during nap/rest time - took it out of the oven.

It smelled and looked so delicious that after rest/nap time, we couldn't wait for it to cool completely. We cut into it and enjoyed the warm, melty deliciousness. Mmmmm...

Mom, why didn't you ever make anything with rhubarb? 

I'm only asking because when I told a few of my friends about making these rhubarb bars, they started to reminisce about their moms' special rhubarb recipes as if it were a common thing for moms to have special rhubarb recipes.