Treat Yourself to a Piece of History!

Treat Yourself to a Piece of History!

The sweet tooth of the world can be traced back around 4,000 years, however, the most popular delicacy of all time did not appear until the time of the ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures.

600 A.D. the Mayans migrated into the northern regions of South America. The earliest known cocoa plantations were established in the Yucatan. Both Mayans and Aztecs used the beans from the cacao tree and made a drink they called xocoatl. Aztec legends say the cacao seeds had come from Paradise and people who partook of the seeds gained wisdom.

Ancient Mexicans worshiped Tonacetecutli, the goddess of food, and Calchiuhtlucue, the goddess of water. The believed the two goddesses were the guardians of cocoa. With that in mind, each year, human sacrifices were performed to the goddesses. Part of the victim’s last meal?? Cocoa!

In the 1700’s, Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus, renamed ‘cocoa’ to ‘theobroma’ which is Greek for ‘food of the gods’.

It is purported that cacao beans were brought back to the court of King Ferdinand by Christopher Columbus from his fourth visit to the New World. Given the sparse information to this possible fact, the cacao beans were probably overlooked midst the many other treasures found that trip.

In 1519, Hernando Cortez visited the court of Montezuma. According to historian William Hickling’s History of the Conquest of Mexico (1838), Montezuma drank no other beverage but chocolatl. The general ‘recipe’ for chocolatl was a paste of the cacao bean, flavored with spices and vanilla which was reduced to a thick froth which gradually dissolved in the mouth. The drink was served cold.

Cortez brought chocolate back to the royal court of Kind Charles V in 1529. The cacao beans were secretly processed in the monasteries and chocolate was kept a secret for almost one hundred years. Italian traveler, Antonio Carletti, discovered chocolate in 1606 and it began its journey into other parts of Europe.

The first chocolate house is said to have opened in London around 1657 by a Frenchman. Being expensive, it was considered a drink for the elite. A quote from sixteenth-century Spanish historian, Oviedo, stated, “None but the rich and noble could afford to drink chocolatl as it was literally drinking money.”

Chocolate was also considered of medicinal value. Cardinal Richelieu dosed his various illnesses with it.

By 1730, the price of chocolate had dropped from approximately three dollars a pound to a cost that made it accessible to classes other than the extremely wealthy. In 1828, the invention of the cocoa press cut prices further and improved the quality of the end product. The Industrial Revolution furthered the popularity of chocolate.

Americans were introduced to chocolate at Prince Albert’s Exposition in 1851. John Hanan brought cacao beans to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1765. The first chocolate factory was established there. For many centuries, chocolate was considered only a beverage. Actually eating chocolate began in 1674 in the from of cakes and pastries. With the use of a steam engine for grinding cacao beans in 1795, Joseph Fry of Bristol, English, was able to manufacture chocolate on a large scale. In 1847, Fry & Sons sold “Chocolat Delicieux a Manger” which is believed to be the first chocolate bar for eating. Nestle states that from 1800 to the present, four factors contributed to chocolate’s coming of age as a food product:

1. Introduction of cocoa powder in 1828
2. Reduction of excise duties
3. Improvements in transportation facilities, from plantation to factory.
4. The invention of eating chocolate.

Naturally from the 1800’s on, chocolate has continued to change and grow. The quick candy bar you grab for a snack today is a lot different from what was available one hundred years ago. The next time you let a delicious piece of chocolate melt in your mouth, don’t feel guilty about the calories because you are experiencing history! With that fact firmly in place, take advantage of the availability of chocolate today and try the following hot chocolate recipe and gift your friends with a New Year’s treat.

Hot Chocolate Mix

11 cups of powdered dry milk
2 cups of powdered sugar
11 oz. powdered non-dairy creamer
2 lbs of instant chocolate drink mix
4 heaping tbsp. of unsweetened cocoa
1 small box of instant chocolate pudding mix
2 bags Mini marshmallows
6 quart-sized mason jars – or decide the size you want for gifting.

Blend the powdered milk in a food processor until finely ground.  Mix all ingredients except marshmallows. Layer 6 tbsp of mix followed by a good handful of marshmallows until the jar is full, ending with the mix. Makes 6 one quart jars of hot chocolate mix. Don’t forget to add a direction tag: To make a cup of delicious hot chocolate, add 3-4 tablespoons of mix to six ounces of hot water.

You can change the taste around with the addition of some cinnamon to the dry mix. It’s fun to include a stick of cinnamon bark to each jar, too, for a festive addition. Grinding up some vanilla bean into the dry mix can never go wrong.

Gluten-Free Cupcakes

Nothing I like better than an excuse to bake. On Sunday, our parish had an event that included a bakery table so it was my cue to get out the recipes and ingredients. I ended up with apple tarts, peanut butter/chocolate cupcakes, cranberry/carrot cupcakes, and chocolate/marshmallow cupcakes. They are all gluten-free offerings but no one could tell. Who says there is no life without wheat products?

Donut Days Should Happen During Holiday Days!

Although we don’t indulge too often, it is always a welcome treat to have fresh donuts. With the holidays coming up, the idea is getting more and more appealing. I prefer fresh, plain donuts but my children always have input as to what flavor icing and how much icing should go on their donut. I don’t know too much about storing donuts . . . as they seldom last until the next day!

Cake Doughnuts

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour*
1 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons shortening
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk

Heat oil in deep fryer or heavy kettle to 375 degrees.

Beat 1 ½ cups of the flour and the remaining ingredients in large mixing bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly, 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 2 minutes. Stir in remaining flour. Turn dough onto well-floured board; roll out 3/8th inch thick. Cut with floured doughnut cutter. Slide doughnuts into hot oil with wide spatula. Turn doughnuts as they rise to surface. Fry until golden brown, 1 to 1 ½ minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Serve plain, sugared or frosted.

*I’ve been successful in using a gluten-free flour blend called BetterBatter to make these gluten-free. Just remember, you have to go by weight rather than cups to get a workable, tasty outcome.

Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free Feast!

When we changed our diets and gave up several categories of staple foods, the consensus was that we were going to starve. The pictures above feature the makings for a typical meal at our house. Chicken with mushroom sauce is a favorite. We serve it over spaghetti squash. My husband has to fight for a leftover for his lunch at work. So, how do I obtain a cream sauce without using milk? See the measuring cup of cashews in the upper left-hand corner. There is the secret. I use a cup of cashews with a cup of chicken broth and heat it up in the microwave for a minute to heat up the broth and help the cashews soak it up and soften a bit. It goes into the blender with seasonings of choice, a half tablespoon of Arrowroot starch (you can use cornstarch, too), blend it smooth and put in a pot. Bring to a simmer, stirring often. If it is too thick, add more broth, too thin a bit more of your chosen thickener dissolved in a tablespoon of water.

Meanwhile, brown your boneless chicken really well. Cool a bit and slice into bite-sized pieces and set aside. Do NOT wash your browning pan because now you are going to brown your onions (add a bit more olive oil if necessary) and the sliced, fresh mushrooms. Return the chicken to the pan along with your sauce and bring to a simmer, turn down the heat, and let the flavors meld. Test for seasoning adding more salt and pepper, if needed. I like to put a sprinkle of cayenne into the sauce but not for heat but to perk up the taste.

The greenery in the second picture is Kale which has become a favorite around here. For a meal with a sauced protein, you need a contrast and this is an easy one. Wash your Kale and strip off big pieces of the woody center. Put the Kale pieces in a large bowl and add two smashed and diced cloves of garlic along with salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Toss with half olive oil and half sesame oil. You want the Kale to glisten not drown in the oil. Lay out the Kale on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes depending on your stove. The leaves will begin to brown a bit and be crisp.

Spaghetti Squashes only challenge is in cutting the thing in half! I find that buying two or three small ones is easier as they are more tender than the large ones. In any cash, cut a thin slice off each end to form a flat surface to cut them down the middle, lengthwise, Scrap out the seeds and put them cut side down in a baking dish. Pour in enough water to come just a half inch up the side of the squash. Put in the microwave and it takes approximately 15-20 minutes to get tender. Remove from oven and with a wad of paper towel to keep your hand from getting burned, use a fork to scrap out the spaghetti-like strands.

Dinner is served and I guarantee no one will starve.

Cashew Cheese . . . Is it Possible?

Over the years, I’ve embarked on several adventures in the diet that feeds my family. First of all, I love to bake so my early years saw a lot of bread and Christmas time kept the house smelling of cinnamon and spice and everything very nice. The children were small and my husband and I ran around too much tending to family needs to worry about weight gain.

A few years into the marriage, the lactose intolerance that plagued my husband when he was an infant returned so dairy was used sparingly and my husband always had his medication at hand in case I forgot to give the preliminary dinner warning.

Twenty years go by and we are used to the lactose problem but, basically enjoy home-cooked meals with dessert on Sunday. I worked at keeping out the dairy but it still made appearances in deference to the budget and meatless Fridays. Things got worse, however, and it took more and more pills to calm down any intake of dairy so I cooked around that and we still enjoyed good meals. Even leaving out the dairy, my husband still experience pain but nothing seemed to explain why so we coped.

We were browsing at Costco, one day, and came across an interesting book on taking wheat out of the diet. I like to read cookbooks like others read a good novel. My husband purchased the book for me and the idea of taking wheat out of the diet intrigued me more as a challenge than a real life change. As long as he gets his meals, my husband was okay with the experiment for ONE month and then we go back to normal. A couple of weeks of going gluten-free, my husband suddenly realized that dairy wasn’t bothering him anymore and the mysterious pains were completely gone. We did a little more checking and discovered he had never had lactose intolerance, he was sensitive to gluten!

We have been gluten-free for over three years but anyone sharing a meal at our home wouldn’t know it as I took on the challenge and could replicate most all of my baking recipes and dinners without gluten.

We were browsing at Costco, one day . . . sound familiar? And I came across an interesting book on taking several categories of basic foods out of the diet with the promise of feeling better. My husband bought me the book and said I could try it for ONE month and then we were back to our now regular gluten-free diet. Six months later, we are still on the Whole30 way of eating which means we do not eat dairy, gluten, grains, legumes/beans, sugar, or alcohol. We liked the way we felt, discovered new foods, and have yet to miss any of the ‘forbidden’ list. Okay, I sort of missed a cheesy lasagna of my making but not enough to include it in our lives, again. It just wasn’t worth it.

We were browsing at Costco, one day. . . we go to Costco a lot! I was looking at the books (Yeah, you’d think my husband would forbid me to go down that aisle by now!) And found Paleo Takeout, Restaurant Favorites Without the Junk. Now, Paleo allows some of the items we omit from our Whole30 diet but the book kindly includes substitutes on some recipes to make it usable for us. In this book is a recipe for Cashew Cheese on page 248 (Yes, I have the page number memorized!). I tried the recipe and used it for a vegetable lasagna recipe (no noodles but slices of zucchini!) and happily discovered I could have the taste and texture of a melty Italian dish with a third of the calories and a fresher taste. We no long say that we ‘can’t’ eat something with our diet but that we don’t chose do eat it but I never stop looking for innovative ways to bring some old favorites to the dinner table with the new rules.

Anyone interested, the Book is Paleo Takeout, Restaurant Favorites Without The Junk by Russ Crandall. A hint: the Asian recipes in the book are excellent!

Pickle Relish – Homemade

Once you decide to try and avoid sugar in your diet, it discover it appears everywhere! One of our favorite condiments with        German sausages or hot dogs is pickle relish. Unless you want to spent a lot more on a sugar-free alternative which is bad for your health and your finances, I’ve discovered you can come up with a fresh version of pickle relish that ends up beating out the jarred types . . . and it maintains the integrity of the vitamins in the vegetables you use – no cooking involved.

Like with any recipe, I’m presenting the one that appeals to my family. The recipe is very forgiving and you can change quite a lot around in order to produce the tastes that suits you and your family.

My Homemade Sweet Pickle Relish

1 large cucumber, peeled
1 medium red onion, peeled
1 large green Bell pepper
1 large red Bell pepper
2 stalks of celery
2 Roma tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon powdered hot Chinese mustard
1 tablespoon diced pickled jalapeno pepper
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Cut the vegetable into chunks (cucumber, onion, peppers, celery and tomatoes) and grind in a food processor. You want a coarse grind here not mush! Stir in the rest of the ingredients, let sit for a few minutes and test for taste.

The relish will last in the refrigerator for three to four days. Ours seldom lasts more than two days as we tend to eat more of the relish than the meat.

Perfect Pot Luck Offering!

I would venture that most people enjoy the peanut butter/ chocolate combination. This is a fast way to get some treats ready for a dessert, pot luck, or snacking. I like the fact that the ingredients are usually already in the house. You can go extra fancy and put on colorful sprinkles before it sets. I mean, what’s a little more sugar? 🙂

Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Candy

12 ounces milk chocolate chips

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest – it really brings out the peanut butter taste.

4 cups miniature marshmallows

Line an 8 or 9-inch square pan with foil leaving an overhang on the edges of the pan so you can lift out the candy when it is firm. Give the foil a light spray with vegetable oil spray.

Carefully melt the chocolate and peanut butter together, stirring often to prevent scorching. Continue stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the nuts, extracts, and marshmallows. You can mix until the marshmallows are completely blended or leave a few pockets of white here and there,  Chill until firm and cut into serving pieces.

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cookies

Ginger, pumpkin, and spice! Now that is the scent of coming holidays! This recipe has a long list of ingredients but a close look will show they are all common items, nothing exotic . . . until the scent of them permeates your home. When I make these cookies gluten-free, I use Better Batter Gluten-Free blend with good results. It’s all in the weighing that is the key to success when substituting gluten-free blends for wheat flour.

Spicy Pumpkin Cookies
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Zest of one fresh orange
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the shortening and brown sugar and beat together until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add the extracts, zest, and pumpkin.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the shortening/sugar mixture. Stir in the cranberries or raisin and nuts.

Scoop out teaspoons of dough and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown and set. Remove to cool on a rack.

A nice touch for the holidays would be an orange glaze. Just drizzle it over the cookies when they are still a bit warm and let dry. Some colorful sprinkles in keeping with the season wouldn’t go amiss, either!

Sweet Without Granulated Sugar!

Since we are cutting granulated sugar and it’s various forms from our diet, I found we were missing that element of sweetness in coleslaw and homemade barbecue sauces. Honey, molasses, and maple syrup were not an option. Well, I was in the midst of making such a salad and although I had the correct amount of tang to the salad, it was still missing the underlying sweet component that completes a good, coleslaw salad. As a pondered this problem, I noticed the bowl of peaches on the counter and realized that fruit was allowed on our eating regime and peaches were sweet! I skinned the peach and pureed it, added it to the mayo and spices, and perfect coleslaw dressing balance. Our coleslaw, these days, includes shredded carrots, Jicama, celery, cucumbers, and cabbage.